Kevin Thompson receives AOP Peter Yeo Award

Optometrist, practice owner and previous AOP chairman, Kevin Thompson, has received the association’s Peter Yeo Award in recognition of his significant contributions to optometry.

Presented with the accolade by AOP outgoing chairman, Emma Spofforth, during the association’s annual Council dinner last night (2 June), the award is the highest accolade given by the AOP.

Thompson, who joined AOP Council in 2007 and was subsequently elected to board in 2009 before becoming chair from 2015 to 2017, steps down after 18 years, retiring from his current role as a Councillor representing directors of independent practices.

Presenting Thompson with the Award, Spofforth said: “He leaves an amazing legacy to our profession and the AOP and to many of us who have tried to follow in his footsteps but with less success.”

During the almost two decades that Thompson has been part of AOP Council, he has sat on a range of sub committees, including the professional services committee and the joint primary care committee, and was instrumental in supporting the development of the GOS Contracts toolkit, Quality in Optometry. He has also sat on the LOCSU board, and a range of General Optical Council and NHS committees, “supporting the Independent Business owners, which is where his heart lies,” Spofforth said.

Having served alongside Thompson on AOP Council for a number of years, Spofforth recalled the time she first met the practice owner in 2012. Thompson, as a Board member at the time, was running the induction of new Councillors – Spofforth was one of them.

She shared: “Seated around a room, he asked us one by one why we had applied for the role as Councillor. When it came to my turn, I ranted for a significant while about improving optometry and the status we had with both other primary care and secondary care colleagues. When I had finally finished, he simply said, in an accent I have no hope of emulating, ‘Well, we better see what we can do then’ I think he certainly has input into that aim of mine over his time in the AOP.”

Recalling Thompson’s time as chairman of the AOP, Spofforth shared that he was pivotal in the introduction of immediate past chairman on AOP Board, which sees the outgoing chair serve and support the Board for a further two years.

Spofforth described Thompson as having an entrepreneurial spirit, which meant “he was always his own boss and was an empire builder.”

During his career he has owned over 32 practices in north east England and Scotland.

Beyond optometry, Thompson has been a sub-postmaster, entrepreneur, musician, community radio founder, school governor, listed-building renovator and Mayor of Alnwick.

On receiving the award, Thompson shared: “Having spent 18 years serving the AOP, an organisation dedicated to supporting optometrists and dispensing opticians, helping to shape its direction has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional life. I am incredibly proud to have played a part in strengthening such an important organisation. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see the legacy that I have helped develop with others, thrive in the future and I shall watch with interest.”

He said it had been an “absolute privilege to work alongside the AOP’s Board, Council, staff and partners throughout the sector to drive positive change and deliver exceptional support for members.”

“Receiving the Peter Yeo Medal is a tremendous honour and a fitting way to mark the close of this chapter. I am truly humbled by this recognition,” Thomoson shared, adding: “None of this of course would be possible without my family. I would like to thank them for their enduring patience over the years spent at the AOP, which has seen my sons grow from tiny toddlers to three grown men that I am immensely proud of.”

The AOP last presented the Peter Yeo Award three years ago to its previous chief executive, Henrietta Alderman.