Knights of the blind

It was 80 or so years ago that one Helen Keller challenged the then fairly young International Association of Lions Clubs to be Knights of the Blind. Since then, Lions Clubs have tried to do their best for blind people while not forgetting the many other worthy causes demanding our attention.

I wasn't actually going to do this, but let's do a bit of trumpet blowing.

• You know the white stick carried by many blind people? That was introduced by Lions Clubs.
• Since 1990, Lions Clubs across the world have raised US$415 million to spend on sight related projects. One such was the complete elimination of river blindness in Columbia and Ecuador.
• Here in Britain, Lions Clubs have raised in excess of £100,000 to pay for two day rooms in the new St Dunstan's facility at Llandudno. St Dunstan's cares for blind ex-servicemen and was the recipient of Brighton Lions Club's first donation 60 years ago.

I could go on, but that gives at least a flavour of what Lions Clubs have done and still do for the blind.

My life this week seems to be revolving around blind people. Yesterday I was on transport duty for the three registered blind people from Brighton who attend the Tuesday Club, a monthly social meeting for blind people across East Sussex. Luckily, the arthritis which had flared up in my hands over the weekend had died down or I would have had great difficulty in driving the 30 miles or so along B roads to the venue.

(Here in England we have fours classes of roads: motorways, A roads, B roads and unclassified.)

Tomorrow is World Sight Day and I and a couple of others will be visiting the workshop of Chichester Lions. They collect unwanted spectacles and separate the lenses from the frames. Suitable lenses are than sent to a prison in the north of England or to another in France where prisoners work in laboratories grading the lenses. They are then sent to developing countries for re-use. We will take the opportunity of delivering the specs we have collected over the past few weeks.

Most of the blind or partially-sighted people with whom we have contact are pleasant and appreciative of what help we can give. They are also quite undemanding. Unfortunately, not all are like that. Last weekend we had a plea for help from a lady who is registered blind. She finds it difficult to maintain her garden and hoped we could help. Her husband works full-time so he can't help her. Bearing in mind that many of us are elderly and full of aches and pains and that others are working full-time (like the lady's husband) we told her that this was not an area where we could help. She responded by asking what we could do to help her. Not a lot, I suspect, as she seems to be a demanding sort with a husband who does as little as possible around the flat. Whilst one has to sympathise on account of the blindness, her "gimme, gimme" approach is unfortunate and acts as a deterrent.