Sheryl Doe and Stephen Tighe being presented with their award in London.
 Optician director’s spec-tacular recovery merits special adversity award
The owners of a successful West Yorkshire opticians overcame adversity to grow their company, despite one of the co-founders contracting a life-threatening illness just months after opening their doors.
huge pleasure to present Allegro Optical with this award.”
Co-founders Sheryl Doe and Stephen Tighe, said:“We are so pleased to have won this award. It’s been a tough couple of years since we opened our fifirst bricks and mortar store in 2017, but the family worked together and the business continued to grow.
“We’re really proud of how the business has grown so far and with 69
professional musical ensembles in theUK alone we know our market islarge.”
More than 2,000 small businessesfrom across the UK entered the FSBCelebrating Small Business Awards2019.
Many congratulations to everyone atAllegro Optical for another marvelousachievement.
      YOU’VE REMEMBERED YOUR
WINNER
 OFFICIALLY THE
BEST DISPENSING OPTICIAN
IN THE UK
2019
                                  Winner of
National Arts and Entertainment Business of the Year award
SCALE-UP BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNER
Winner of
FSB Scale-Up Business of the Year award
    Winner of
Dispensing Optician of the Year award
 Allegro Optical • Unit 1 The Greenfield Centre
Wellington Road • Greenfield • OL3 7AJ • 01457 353100
Allegro Optical • 1-3 Station Street • Meltham • HD9 5NX • 01484 907090
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04/04/2019 17                                  Greenfifield and Meltham-based Allegro Optical, which provides a unique optical services to musicians and performers worldwide as well as local eye-care, picked up the Chairman’s Special Award at last night’s (23 May) FSB Celebrating Small Business Awards at Battersea Evolution in London. The award was given to a business that has faced and overcome major diffificulties.
Allegro Optical Managing Director Stephen Tighe, who co-founded the business with partner Sheryl Doe, fell seriously ill in 2017 just months after opening the practice in Meltham and was hospitalised for almost three months.
Despite musician Stephen’s life support machine being switched off, he beat the odds and recovered - and amazingly has now returned to work full-time.
Stephen’s illness meant Sheryl, managing director and dispensing optician, had to run and grow the business on her own, and managed to keep the opticians open six days per week, despite daily hospital visits.
The business works with The Royal Northern College of Music,The Halle
Orchestra and Huddersfifield Philharmonic to help musicians who struggle to focus on printed music and written notation due to a variety of eye conditions. Known as the ‘musician’s optician’, they are the fifirst and only opticians to become registered British Association of Performing Arts Medicine practitioners.
Allegro Optical, which employs 14 people, now works with musicians from major international ensembles including English National Ballet Philharmonic and Dublin RTE Concert Orchestra.
FSB National Chairman Mike Cherry said: “This is an incredible story of a family business defeating the odds, not only managing to continue and grow their company, but overcoming adversity in terms of Stephen’s health too.The whole team, led by Sheryl and Stephen have pulled together to make sure Allegro Optical is a success, and it’s down to them that the businesses has gone from strength to strength.
“The opticians not only provides an important community service, but has carved out a niche, providing eye-care to renouned mucisicans. It gives me
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