Seeing beyond the problem

A volunteer who has been registered severely sight impaired for 15 years is running a wide range of well-attended Zoom events to help create a support network for people with sight loss.

Suzie Simons, who secured an RFC grant in May 2019 to provide a series of events to support people with sight loss, said: “The Royal Free London provides 100,000 eye clinic appointments across five sites and that represents a huge need for peer support of which there is very little in our area.

“I wanted to help create multiactivity peer support to help people with low or no sight to remember that life isn’t just about survival. Even in the darkest moments you can still find comedy and fun and join in the things that give us more of a reason for living.”

She said that unemployment, depression, loneliness and isolation were huge issues for many people with sight loss even before the pandemic reduced social contact. “But once you get involved and join the meetings you are doing something, not just for yourself, but for everybody else in the group. Hopefully the more you do, the more you want to do.”

The group is now welcoming people from all areas into the Zoom meetings which creates an even larger community for people with visual impairment.

From January the group will be running groups every weekday. Do pass on these details to anyone living with a visual impairment. They are on this Facebook link.

https://www.facebook.com/eye.matter.543/

Call Suzie on 07523266421 or email [email protected]