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Most people think of a sight test as exactly that, a test of how clearly you can see. What they don't realise is that your eyes are one of the most revealing windows into the state of your overall health. Including your stress levels. Including the state of your nervous system. Including your hormonal balance, your sleep quality, and what your body is carrying that your conscious mind might be too busy to notice. As the first UK optometrist to integrate ocular wellness into c

Panel Discussion Char for Optical Women's Association Leadership Panel 2026 I need to tell you something about where I come from. I grew up in a house where abundance was not a concept we discussed, it was just how we lived, in our thinking, in our decisions, in the way my family approached every opportunity and every obstacle. Not because we had everything. But because we were wired to believe that more was always possible, that risk was not something to avoid but something

I have been in optics for over 20 years. I became an optometrist because I wanted to help people. Like most clinicians, I was good at the technical side, the tests, the diagnostics, the prescriptions. What I was less prepared for was everything that sits beneath the surface of a profession. The identity questions. The pressure to perform. The invisible weight of always being the one with the answers. The particular kind of exhaustion that comes not from working hard, but from

I've sat in the audience for a lot of talks. Some were polished. Some were technically impressive. Some had slides so beautiful they could have been gallery pieces. And some, if I'm honest, I've forgotten entirely by the time I reached the car park. But every now and then, something different happens. The speaker says something and the room shifts. You can feel it. A collective exhale, or a stillness, or the sound of people writing something down at exactly the same moment be

At some point in your career, it's likely you were given some version of the following advice: be more assertive. Don't be so emotional. Stop over-explaining. Toughen up. What nobody told you is that the traits being gently (or not so gently) coached out of you are precisely the ones that make women exceptional leaders. That's the female advantage. And it's time we stopped apologising for it. What the research actually shows Studies consistently show that organisations with m

Let me say something that I wish someone had said to me earlier in my career. Burnout is not a character flaw. It is not what happens to people who can't cope. It is not a sign that you chose the wrong profession, or that you're too sensitive, or that you need to toughen up. Burnout is what happens when a high-performing, high-caring person runs on empty for too long without adequate recovery. And in healthcare, in leadership, in any profession that demands your whole self,

Ted X Doncaster 2025 I get asked this question fairly regularly by event organisers: Do you have a standard talk? And my honest answer is no. Not really. I have topics. I have frameworks. I have material I've developed over years of research, clinical practice, and lived experience that I draw from. But the talk I deliver to a room of independent optometrists navigating ICB changes and the pressures of running a small business is not the same talk I deliver to a corporate lea

There’s a moment every clinician experiences…Where knowledge is no longer the problem. It’s decision making. It’s confidence. It’s leadership. And more often than we admit…It’s what’s happening in the mind behind the eye. VOLK CAMPAIGN SHOOT 2025 Meet Dr Pretty Basra: Redefining Leadership in UK Optics Dr Pretty Basra is an award-winning optometrist, TEDx speaker, and one of the UK’s emerging voices in mental fitness, female leadership, and optical business growth. With over

We need to talk about a word that gets used a lot, often loosely, and sometimes in ways that do more harm than good. Mental health. Don't get me wrong, mental health awareness matters enormously, and the work being done to reduce stigma is vital. But there's a problem with the way we've framed the conversation. By making it almost entirely about illness, about crisis, diagnosis, and disorder, we've inadvertently left out the majority of people who are struggling but don't id

But something kept nagging at me. Because what I was seeing in the eyes, the early vascular changes, the signs of inflammation, the nutritional markers quietly visible in the retina, rarely matched the conversation we were having. We were seeing things that mattered. Things that, if acted on early, could change the trajectory of someone's health. And we were largely staying silent about them. Not because we didn't care. Because the system wasn't built for that conversation.

There’s a quiet revolution happening in healthcare, and it’s being led by women. Not just as clinicians, but as leaders, innovators, and changemakers. Women who are no longer waiting for permission to step forward, but creating their own space, in boardrooms, on conference stages, and in businesses built from passion and purpose.

When everything feels urgent, leadership can start to feel like firefighting. You’re juggling patients, staff, numbers, deadlines, and somehow expected to stay calm, composed, and inspiring. But leadership isn’t about being unshakable. It’s about being self-aware. That’s where emotional intelligence (EI) comes in — the hidden advantage that separates average managers from truly transformational leaders.

f you’re ambitious, driven, and constantly moving toward the next goal, this one’s for you. High performers — especially in healthcare and entrepreneurship — often wear “busy” as a badge of honour. We believe productivity equals progress. But what if the real key to high performance isn’t motion - it’s stillness? In a world that rewards constant action, pausing can feel uncomfortable, even indulgent. But neuroscience tells us the opposite: your brain needs space to thin

Every successful person has a moment they’d rather forget - the rejection, the failure, the heartbreak, the closed door. But here’s what most people don’t realise: Those moments are not detours. They’re data points. I failed my A-Levels.I rebuilt a business that was close to collapsing. I’ve been rejected, ignored, and underestimated more times than I can count. And yet, every single setback became the foundation of my success. Because success isn’t about avoiding failu

Behind every thriving optical business, there’s a person who once didn’t know where to start. I’ve been that person. I bought a struggling practice, rebuilt it from the ground up, and transformed it into a seven-figure business - not through luck, but through learning, failing, and finding the right mentors at the right time. The optical world is full of brilliant clinicians. But what I see missing, time and again, is business confidence. We’re taught how to test eyes -

When “Strong” Stops Working There was a time when I thought strength meant never breaking. Keep going. Keep smiling. Keep achieving. Until one day, I couldn’t. I remember sitting on the floor of my bedroom, exhausted from trying to hold everything together, my practice, my clinic, my PhD, my family. I had built so much, yet inside I felt like everything was falling apart. That moment wasn’t the end of my story. It was the beginning. Because that’s where I discov

Before you’re an optician, you’re a person. Before the qualifications, the clinics, the patient lists, the targets, there’s you. Somewhere along the way, many professionals forget that. We spend years training to care for other people’s vision, and in doing so, we lose sight of our own. In the optical world, success often looks like ticking boxes: exams, accreditations, clinical mastery, patient satisfaction, business growth. But when you strip it all back, who are

In the world of optics, we talk endlessly about clarity - 20/20 vision, focus, precision. But what about the clarity within? The future of optics won’t be shaped solely by technology, equipment, or clinical innovation. It will be shaped by the people behind the lenses — their mindset, resilience, and ability to adapt in a changing world.