Adam Sampson: “At heart, Kevin was a change-maker”

As with all our other events – at 100% Optical and at roadshows in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Manchester and Birmingham – there was a real energy and enthusiasm in the room, with everyone focusing on the changes we need to make to drive the profession forward over the next few years. It was not just about improving things for optometry but, more importantly, for patients.

Catching the plane back out of George Best Airport the following morning, I was filled with the sort of renewed optimism that only spending time with people who are so wholly committed to the eye care mission can give you.

Not every change will be in our interests, and the risks that come with it will need to be identified and managed

The trick is, of course, to sustain that sense of hope when I next encounter more pessimistic voices that we also find among us. In some of those encounters, I sometimes catch a distant echo of the doctrine expounded 150 years ago by the then Prime Minister Lord Salisbury: “Whatever happens will be for the worse and therefore it is in our interests that as little should happen as possible.”

All too often, those voices become so preoccupied with the risks of change, and so obsessed with spelling out precisely how every risk will be managed, that they miss every opportunity to drive improvement when it presents itself.

And yes – change is risky. Not every change will be in our interests, and the risks that come with it will need to be identified and managed. But there is also a risk in not changing: the risk of being overtaken by events, of standing still while the world around us moves rapidly forward.

I am reminded of a psychology experiment in which rats were first taught that pressing a button in their cage would reliably produce food. The researchers then changed the system: pressing the same button would now produce food or, at random, an electric shock. Faced with a risk they could neither predict nor mitigate, some of the rats stopped pressing the button altogether – and eventually starved.

Kevin was a change-maker, a restless spirit who threw himself into fixing problems and driving improvements whenever he saw the chance

Optimism for the future and a willingness to face up to the possible risks of change are essential skills. Not all of us have those skills, which makes those who have vitally important. Sadly for all of us, we have just lost one of them.

Two weeks ago, we got the upsetting and long-feared news that Kevin Thompson had died. Not only was Kevin one of the best-loved people in the AOP, where he had served in almost every capacity you can think of in his long association with us (including as chair between 2015 and 2017), but he was also one of the most admired people in the entire profession, having been a stalwart part of wider sector bodies like the OFNC. It was partly because of that record of long service that he was awarded the Peter Yeo Medal, our highest honour, earlier this year.

But if that makes Kevin sound like the ultimate steady-state committeeman, that is far from what he was. At heart, from what I saw of him, Kevin was a change-maker, a restless spirit who threw himself into fixing problems and driving improvements whenever he saw the chance.

As a businessman, he was entrepreneurial: at one time he had no fewer than 32 practices. As a solution-finder, he was unparalleled: it is partly because of Kevin that we have Quality in Optometry (QiO) as a fundamental support for all practices. And as a campaigner, he was indefatigable, never taking no for an answer and always willing to challenge any resistance or take on any naysayer (albeit disguising his inner steeliness with a twinkling smile and devastating charisma).

Sadly for me, I only knew Kevin in the last years of his life, when ill-health had already started to rob him of some of his vitality. But I will always remember him at the Council dinner in June when, having struggled painfully down to London from his home in the North-East, he stood up to receive his medal from the AOP, dapper and handsome, and effortlessly stole the show with a speech of wit, modesty and intelligence. Sitting there in the audience, you knew you were in the presence of a truly unique, truly important man.

Kevin – we will miss you.

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Obituary: Kevin Thompson

Kevin is remembered by colleagues as a kind and passionate advocate for optometry, who worked tirelessly throughout his career to strengthen, unite and advance the profession