The Dame Mary Perkins Award winner Celeste Raisbeck flanked by retail partners Jason Langdon and Scott Raisbeck

The New Zealand and Australian winners of the inaugural 2021 Specsavers Dame Mary Perkins Medal for outstanding patient care are Celeste Raisbeck from Specsavers Rotorua and Mariella Coluccio from Specsavers Bankstown in Queensland.  

The UK-based Specsavers co-founder Dame Mary Perkins announced the winners herself at a Specsavers Clinical Conference (SCC) live event in Brisbane, acknowledging the “invaluable” contribution and positive impact these two individuals have made in their communities. Raisbeck won the award for her outreach work providing ocular health screening to Murupara, a small Māori community in Rotorua that would otherwise not have access to eyecare. More than 100 people in the community have been screened with 38 pairs of free glasses given out. Coluccio was recognised for her perseverance and follow-up of a three-year-old child with severe swollen optic nerves who was discharged from the hospital with fever and nausea. With the child’s parents speaking limited English, Coluccio persisted in contacting the hospital until the child was taken into emergency surgery for a brain haemorrhage. 

The Dame Mary Perkins Medal considers nominations of individuals, teams or stores within the Specsavers network and was designed to recognise exemplary patient care, going beyond the normal call of duty in customer service, clinical care, clinical leadership and/or teamwork. The New Zealand runners up wer: Karthi Param, St Lukes, Auckland and Max Drennan, Tauranga, who were both commended for their caring and exceptional acts of emergency patient care.  

The Australia runners up were: Chris Blanch, Rockhampton, Queensland; Duncan Lu, Mittagong, New South Wales (NSW); Fan Vu, Richmond, NSW; Gerrard McCarron and Sandra Fawcett, Cessnock, NSW; Mariane Nguyen, Nowra, NSW; Mariane Nguyen and Lizzie Hedges, Nowra, NSW; Michael Swinson, Spearwood, Western Australia (WA); and Nicole Nguyen, Hollywood, South Australia (SA).  

Doug Perkins Medal  

For the second year in a row, the New Zealand Doug Perkins Medal award winner 2021 was won by Specsavers Queenstown, led by partners Leigh Jackson and Sophie Woodburn (pictured below).  

Optometrist director Sophie Woodburn said the team was blown away to find out their store had received the Doug Perkins medal once more. “Winning this award highlights the hard work our team has put in over the last very challenging 12 months. Through lockdowns and restrictions, we did our best to continue to provide affordable, accessible and quality care, and we are incredibly grateful to have been recognised in this way. We are lucky to have such a fabulous team, who are just as passionate about customer care as we are, and we can’t wait to celebrate now we are in Level 2!” 

Hervey Bay Piabla, Queensland, led by partners Sarel Van der Westhuizen, Tash Cannan and Gabbi Pezzuto took home the award in Australia.  

Specsavers co-founder and husband of Dame Mary Perkins, Doug Perkins presented the award at another SCC Online event. The prestigious Doug Perkins Medal is awarded to one Australian and one New Zealand store each year in recognition of high standards of clinical excellence and patient care. A special focus this year was on demonstrating the most significant contribution to providing access to quality eyecare during and after Covid restrictions. 

The finalists (10 Australian stores and four New Zealand stores) represent the top 4% of all Specsavers stores across Australia and New Zealand. 

The New Zealand runners up were Blenheim, Hastings and Newmarket while the Australian runners up were Stanhope Gardens and Rouse Hill, NSW, Cairns and Devonport, Tasmania, Dandenong and Echuca, Victoria, Victor Harbour, SA, Livingston, WA, and Canberra (Australian Capital Territory).