Category: News

Katherine, a local visually impaired member and supporter of Dorset Blind Association, recently pushed herself to the limit and jumped out of a plane to support the local charity! Here at Dorset Blind Association we believe that sight should not mean missing out and actively encourage our members to take part in social clubs and activities. 

Katherine was joined by another local supporter of Dorset Blind; Heather, and between them they raised just over £1,300, making a fantastic difference to the lives of partially sighted people in the community.

The Charity Tandem Skydive took place over at Old Sarum, Salisbury, with the Go Skydive team. The minimum fundraising target for participants wishing to do a skydive for Dorset Blind Association is £350 with a £50 registration fee.

Do you fancy ticking a skydive off your bucket list, or to challenge yourself this new year? Why not take on a skydive and fundraise for Dorset Blind Association where the sky is the limit! Minimum fundraising target is £350, but do not be afraid to go beyond this target just as Heather and Katherine did! Two more daredevil supporters, Hannah and Frankie are taking the plunge before Christmas and have already raised a phenomenal £740! If you would like to support them visit their JustGiving Page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/hannahandfrankietaketheplunge

For more information or to sign yourself up for a skydive, contact Gareth on 01202 712864 or at gareth@dorsetblind.org.uk.or visit the website: https://www.goskydive.com/dorset-blind-association/

 

Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, Angus Campbell, officially opened our second charity shop on Monday 29th October, in Saxon Square, Christchurch.

On the opening of the shop he said: “It is great to have been asked to open the second of the shops, which is one of many more to come… It shows a lot of forethought and I really admire the management and the teams who do this, its a great organisation and it was a great privilege to cut the ribbon.”

We opened our first charity shop in Ferndown last year, and were able to open the second, much earlier than expected, due to a generous donation of £10,000 from the Talbot Village Trust. We plan to open up to 10 charity shops across the county, to provide a sustainable, long term stream of income to maintain our services, to raise awareness of the work of the charity and to act as local hubs for visually impaired people throughout Dorset.

As well as selling a wide range of donated goods, the charity shops hold display areas of specialist equipment and other aids for visually impaired people. They are also an information point, offering advice to people affected by sight loss, as well as their family and friends. The charity shops also offer volunteering opportunities for visually impaired people, to gain useful skills and experience.

Jonathan Holyhead, Chief Executive Officer of Dorset Blind Association said: “I am thrilled that we now have our shop at Christchurch formally open and extremely grateful to the Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, Angus Campbell, for performing this duty. This shop is our second and, along with our first at Ferndown, it will be crucial to the long term future delivery of our key community support service. This helps blind and partially sighted people across Dorset adjust to living with serious sight loss, to still feel their life has purpose and to still lead full, healthy and socially active lives in the local community. We plan to open more shops next year and every penny they raise will be spent on helping local visually impaired people.”

If you would like to support the shop, which is based in Saxon Square opposite Poundstretcher, then pop in and say hello to the lovely shop managers Gary and Tracy! Volunteers and donations urgently required. Call 01202 021132 for more information.

View photos of our Christchurch shop opening here.

 

We held our exclusive Centenary Ball on Saturday 13th October at the Hilton Hotel, Bournemouth. The prestigious 100th Anniversary celebration raised a phenomenal £22,705 on the night: an incredible amount and also the most that we have ever raised in one event!

The event was kindly sponsored by our long-running supporter Blue Sky Financial Planning and saw over 160 guests to celebrate an impressive 100 years of Dorset Blind Association, with guests arriving in their finest dinner suits and posh frocks to a red carpet welcome complimentary glass of champagne, followed by a three-course dinner with wine and coffee.

The Centenary celebrations were thoroughly embraced by our guests, who tried their hands at the Viva Las Vegas Casino, danced the night away to the fantastic sounds of Swing Unlimited Big Band and participated in the accompanying raffle and auction. To get the guests up and moving after dinner, a fun and thoroughly entertaining game of Heads or Tails was played to music.

Guests had the opportunity to meet our patrons, Lord and Lady Julian and Emma Fellowes, and DBA President, James Weld. On display was an exhibition of Dorset Blind Association’s extensive history, featuring a timeline of the most important milestones in the past 100 years.

Jonathan Holyhead, Chief Executive Officer of Dorset Blind Association, said:

“The evening was a wonderful, happy way to help celebrate our centenary. I am absolutely thrilled by the amount raised and I cannot thank people enough for their generosity. This money will go towards the provision of future services and support for blind and partially sighted people across Dorset, so a great many people will benefit from it and on their behalf I want to say “thank you”, again, to everyone who helped make the Ball such a huge success.”

We have held our annual Ball for 4 years, and will be returning with the Masquerade theme next year on Saturday 26th October. Get the date in your diary now so you won’t miss out on this spectacular event!

Photographs are available here.

Our Bright for Sight Night Run took place this year on Saturday 15th September along Boscombe Seafront, sponsored by Parley Optometrists. 120 runners took on the 5k or 10k challenge, making this years event the biggest in the charity’s history, successfully raising just under £3500!

The event was kick started with a Clubbercise warm up by Emma Crow, getting the runners raring to go before setting off on their 5k or 10k run. The popular ‘Bright for Sight’ theme saw participants don their neon clothing, glow sticks, glow paint, fabulous tutus and colourful fairy lights, lighting up the seafront as they went. At the finish line, all participants received a goody bag, bright for sight medal and certificate, with thanks to, Urban Reef; Waves; Better Gym Bournemouth; Tesco Branksome; Parley Optometrists and ZumbaFitnessEmma for their kind donations.

Stromatic Dance group, based in Weymouth, joined the 5k run to support their visually impaired dance partner, collectively raising £367 for the charity.

Fran Randall says: “Stromatic Dance is a site specific physical theatre dance company for young people aged 13 – 21 years. We decided to do the run as one of our dancers is registered blind and we wanted to support him. I have been training myself to be his guide as he enjoyed running before losing his sight and asked if I would mind running with him. We are planning to develop this further. We all really enjoyed getting neoned up and running in the dark and had a fantastic evening. It was made better that Luke O’Dowd who is registered blind, myself and Tom Mutter were the first back on the 5K!”

We are extremely pleased with the huge success of the event and would like to thank everybody that attended! Our ‘Bright for Sight’ theme returns on World Sight Day on 11th October as we encourage schools, businesses and anybody that would like to get involved to ‘Wear Bright for Sight’. If you are interested or would like more information please contact Gareth at gareth@dorsetblind.org.uk or on 01202 712864.

Check out our Facebook page for all the photographs from the night.

Andrew Turnbull is raising sponsorship for his 5k run in Vienna at the Johnson and Johnson Vision Run on the 23rd September 2018, during the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons’ Congress. Andrew is a eye surgeon and he has kindly chosen to raise his sponsorship in aid of Dorset Blind Association.

Andrew says: “As eye surgeons, we try to prevent and reverse blindness. Unfortunately, sometimes we fail. We don’t have the answer for everything. For people with visual impairment, the world can be a lonely and frightening place. The DBA do fantastic work helping people in Dorset with visual impairment to live full and happy lives.”

 

The 5k run that Andrew is taking part starts at 5:40am so he needs as much encouragement as possible! He requires no sponsorship to take part in the run, but he has kindly taken the opportunity to support Dorset Blind Association! So far he has raised £160 through his JustGiving Page but he has set himself a target of £250.

We would like to say a huge thank you to Andrew for his choice to raise sponsorship in aid of our charity and we wish him good luck for his run!

If you would like to know more about Andrew’s run or support him through sponsorship please go to his just giving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/isurgeon

 

 

 

On Saturday 29th September The Macular Forum has a guest speaker, Anthea Cook from Optima Low Vision Services Ltd speaking about low vision assessments, giving general information about eye conditions and techniques to make the best use of vision. If you are interested in attending the talk it is held at Bournemouth Eye Unit Outpatients Department from 11am- 1pm.

One of our members Tom Archer has recently achieved a GOLD medal in a water skiing competition! He gives us an account of his journey and how he got to win the gold:

“‘Over the recent bank holiday weekend, I entered what was only my second water skiing competition. I entered the same competition last year, despite the fact that it was my first competition last year I was entered as an intermediate. Unfortunately I didn’t perform to my best and I made quite a big mistake… Falling in. However I still came away with a bronze medal.

This year, despite the fact that the weather was horrible on the day, I managed to perform to my best and made no major mistakes. It was fun and I felt so good about my performance that I couldn’t help but give a little punch in the air as I came in at the end of my set. I was so pleased and excited when they announced me the winner of the intermediate category and presented me with a gold medal. I was then surprised and elated when they awarded me with a trophy for outstanding achievement because they had noticed a vast improvement from last year.

It all started in 2016, having tried out water skiing with the British disabled Water ski and Wake board Association at Ellingham Lake a couple of times, I decided to take it seriously. When I first tried I took to it like a duck to water. With the help of the instructors I managed to stand up my first time and I made it round the lake for two laps without falling in. Throughout the 2016 season in order for me to progress the instructors began to give me a little less help and encourage me instead of just staying behind the boat to play around and to cross the wake. They didn’t push me too hard as they also wanted me just to have fun.

Then begins the difficult 2017 season, I made it my goal to Ski (Waterski) without the help of the instructors. Obviously they would still give me instructions from the boat, either using a whistle or a helmet that is connected to a walkie talkie. However, I found this incredibly difficult and I think I spend more time in the water then on the water. I found this very frustrating and hope that no one noticed, but I think that my tantrums gave it away. But then on the 5th of October, which would have been my final session of this season, I finally managed it. I started the session off skiing along side an instructor, but it wasn’t going very well and for some reason I kept falling in. It suddenly occurred to me that I had nothing to lose so might as well try a solo start, as the boat pulled away I held on and stood up successfully. I received a massive cheer from everyone on the boat and couldn’t help but punch the air. Luckily, I stayed on my feet whilst holding on with one hand. As the BDWWA only hire the facilities at Ellingham lake twice a month, they encouraged me to join the Ellingham waterski and Wake board club. Meaning that I had another session to add on before the end of the season and since the start of this year’s season, which began in a very chilly March I have been skiing at least once a week.

From this point the next progression is that instead of skiing on a pair of skis, to ski on a mono ski. This is a lot more maneuverable and allows the participant to ski around the bouy on the slalom course. I then had to balance my time between perfecting the art of skiing on a pair of skis in order to win the competition this year and try to progress onto a monoski. Again this has been very difficult and I won’t lie has caused me to throw all of my toys out of the pram on a regular basis. As soon as I finished the competition this year I made it my target to be skiing on a monoski before the end of this season (October). Bolstered on by my performance and success, on the 1st of September I finally managed to independently start on a monoski and complete one lap of the lake and I was even able to play around with crossing the wake.  Now the world is my oyster!

None of this would have been possible if it weren’t for the brilliance of the British disabled Waterski and Wake board Association (Southwest), they cater for all kinds of disabilities and it is for everyone whether they just want to have fun or if they are like me and are super competitive and everyone in between. Of course without the Dorset Blind Association I may never have discovered this. I would encourage anyone to check it out, even if you don’t actually want to have a go.”

We are so pleased for Tom and wish to congratulate him on all of his fantastic achievements!