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Keith Eales, Chief Executive of the local charity Warwickshire Vision Support, told us how they help people come to terms and continue to live independently after losing their sight.
It is hard to comprehend how you would feel after being told that you are going blind – yet each day 250 people in the UK receive this news. It can be isolating and frightening and the team at Warwickshire Vision, based in the hospitals and in outreach centres throughout Warwickshire, provide emotional and practical support, training and equipment, to help them to adjust to their new life.
Keith has been CEO for a little over 2 years, bringing fresh ideas, a forward-thinking approach and a passion to raise the profile and work of the charity following his own diagnosis of macular degeneration a few years before.
The charity was established in 1911 as Warwickshire Association for the Blind, and has been supporting visually impaired people for over a century. Today there are more than 3,500 people in Warwickshire registered with them. They have used legacy funding to acquire a property in Market Place, Warwick, which they are currently renovating to create offices and a resource centre that will be used for a range of training and other activities which will support people who are blind or partially sighted. The premises will be shared with another charity based in Warwick, with the resource centre to be made available for community groups.
Warwickshire Vision has over 150 volunteers and runs 7 social clubs offering activities and social support; hosts 11 vision support centres and 4 eye clinic advice desks providing information, advice and guidance to people coming to terms with sight loss; it operates a telephone befriending service helping to address issues of social isolation; as well as delivering IT training to enable people to maintain their independence and exercise their rights.
If you would like to join one of their services, please call 01926 411331 or contact them at www.warwickshirevision
Thanking Keith for his presentation Alan Bailey said that a number of our members had deteriorating sight, and we understood the challenges they had faced. President Dick Dixon said that the club would make a donation towards their work.
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