The Sarah Farrant episode

Sarah Farrant is the owner of two independent practices in Somerset, is an expert in therapeutics and dry eye management, and represents the UK as an ambassador on the Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society (TFOS). She lectures both nationally and internationally, and is immediate past president of the British Contact Lens Association (BCLA).

Here are four things we learned about Sarah when recording The OT Podcast.

1 New Zealand played a formative role in her early career and life

After qualifying from Cardiff in 2003 – a time she described as “brilliant” – Sarah went on to complete her pre-registration placement at Boots Opticians.

From there, early in her career, Sarah and her husband Edward moved to New Zealand, where they worked as optometrists and embraced an outdoor lifestyle.

She said of this experience: “Edward and I just loved finding ourselves a bit as well… we worked, but we also did tonnes and tonnes of mountain biking and surfing and windsurfing.”

This period helped Sarah “find her feet” professionally, and exposed her to a more specialist clinical environment where she discovered one of her clinical passions – dry eye.

2 Her passion for dry eye stems from both personal experience and early clinical frustration

Sarah’s specialism in dry eye did not start as a strategic career move – it began when she experienced dry eye symptoms herself early in her career.

While working in New Zealand and later back in the UK, she became frustrated by how poorly dry eye was recognised and managed at the time. “I had been getting some dry eye problems myself… This was really at a time when it wasn’t massively recognised and dealt with on a clinical level.”

This personal empathy, combined with a lack of effective clinical solutions, motivated her to immerse herself in research. She went on to establish what was likely one of the first dedicated dry eye clinics in practice.

“As far as I know, I was certainly one of the first, if not possibly the first, to set up this dedicated dry eye clinic in practice,” she said.

3 Sarah deliberately sets aside one day a week to focus on her practice and planning rather than seeing patients, ensuring the business runs smoothly

Setting aside a day a week for business tasks is something that Sarah has done since first becoming a business owner around 15 years ago. This day is “all about the business, planning, and thinking ahead,” she described.

“It is one of the best things that I did,” she told OT, adding honestly: “It felt fairly indulgent, but it kept me sane. Suddenly I could do all the things that I needed to do to: blue sky think and plan, tactics for training the team, marketing strategies, and business modelling – all the things that we all must do, but I wasn’t trying to do them when I was exhausted at 11 o’clock at night. And that makes a difference.”

Reflecting, she said: “It gave me the luxury of time to think, plan, and get it right.”

Sarah acknowledges that there are huge challenges that come with practice ownership, particularly today.

“That’s why I think a niche is so important. I cannot imagine running an independent right now without a niche. Having carved out those clinics and developed those deliberate business tactics… we certainly would not be where we are if we had not gone down those roots with those specialist clinics,” she said.

4 She has consistently sought to influence and advance the profession since the start of her career

From becoming the youngest trustee at The College of Optometrists in 2008, to chairing her Local Optical Committee, to serving as president of the BCLA, and as the UK ambassador for TFOS, Sarah has always believed in having a voice within the profession.

“I always felt I had a lot to say,” she told OT.

“Having a bit of a voice is beneficial, people do listen… there are important things that you can share from your clinical experience,” she added.

5 Sarah values creativity, and balance outside of optometry

Outside of work, Sarah finds fulfilment in hands-on projects and creative pursuits. She and her husband are currently renovating a 17^th century farmhouse in the Quantock Hills. She finds DIY and pottery grounding because they offer something tangible at the end of the day – a contrast to clinical work.

“One of the joys… is that you get to see the physical fruits of your labour,” Sarah said.

“Doing things like pottery, for me, is such a wonderful escapism,” she added.

The Sarah Farrant episode

OT will release a new episode of The OT Podcast bimonthly. You can listen to The OT Podcast on our website, or via all the main podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Castbox. Be sure to catch-up and listen to other episodes, featuring experts including Imran Hakim, Ian Cameron, Dame Mary Perkins, and Professor Nicola Logan.

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