Curry favour
Serial fundraisers W Bro Clive and Steph Jones, plus fifty curry chums dined out in Market Drayton on 2nd August to support Blind Veterans UK
Hosted by Oruna Cuisine, all the happy diners enjoyed a very generous three-course meal supplemented by Clive’s customary jovial take on life. Steph took charge of financial matters and a well-supported raffle prize draw generated a fund raising result in excess of £600.
Blind Veterans UK is a charity very close to Clive’s heart. The charity supported former Welsh Guardsman Clive and his family when he lost his sight in December 2000. 'I really cannot put into words the debt I owe to Blind Veterans.
'Unexpectedly catapulted into a world of total darkness the charity worked steadfastly with me and my family, helping to rebuild our lives. Simply saying "thank you" is just not enough!'
Sir Arthur Pearson, who owned the Evening Standard and founded the Daily Express, established St Dunstans in 1915. Having lost his own sight through glaucoma, he was shocked at society's attitude to blindness. He decided to help those who had lost their vision in the First World War by giving them the care and rehabilitation they needed to lead constructive, self-sufficient lives.
Nearly a century later, Blind Veterans UK (the successor to St Dunstan's) not only cares for ex-service men and women blinded in action, but for veterans who have lost their sight through accident, illness or old age. The charity has three centres (Brighton, Llandudno and Sheffield) that provide residential and respite care plus sports facilities, as well as qualified welfare staff who help blind veterans across the UK to live independently within their own communities.