News from 2008
Pam Dennis MBE – recognition of a life-time’s achievements
We are thrilled and excited that previous Chief Executive, Mrs Pam Dennis has been honoured in Her Majesty the Queen’s 2008 Birthday Honours. Mrs Dennis has been nominated a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
Mrs Dennis continues to work voluntarily in a range of capacities, including for Gwent Visually Impaired Education, looking after the needs of very young blind and partially sighted children. She runs a local and very popular club for blind people in Newport and continues to work as a volunteer co-ordinator at Gwent Association for the Blind.
Pam Dennis was Chief Executive of Gwent Association for the Blind for over 17 years, in which time she transformed the organisation from a small unit working from a residential front-roof to the dynamic and successful charity it now is, operating to help over 3500 blind and partially sighted people throughout South East Wales. Pam was instrumental in helping establish the refurbished building in which the Association is now housed.
The Middle Step Project
Middle step is a joint project of Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and Gwent Association for the Blind in Newport. There are other sites across the UK that will pioneer this approach with help from Guide Dogs from the Blind Association.
The Middle Step project is designed to offer help and information as soon as possible after the diagnosis of permanent sight loss. By knowing more about what services are available locally, you will come away with expert knowledge and will be able to tell us how best we can help you in the future.
For more detailed information on the Project, an explanatory document can be downloaded from here.
GAB Anual General Meeting 2008
GAB had its Annual General Meeting on 8th July in the beautiful Mayor's Chambers at the Civic Centre in Pontypool. Mr Hugh Phillips,The Chair of the General Committee Meeting, opened the meeting and welcomed everyone and then thanked The Mayor and Mayoress (Mrs and Mrs James) for hosting the AGM. The Mayor then spoke and said how delighted he was to host GAB's AGM and said he knew the wonderful services that GAB provides for the blind and partially sighted people in Torfaen and Gwent generally.
Abseil or Zip Slide?
GAB organized an Abseil and Zip Slide fundraising event on the 12th and 13th July at the Newport Transporter Bridge. The day was a huge success and staff, friends, family and volunteers all participated in this exciting fun event. Luckily, the weather remained fairly dry and the sun even managed to shine on a few occasions! GAB managed to raise over £1000. These much needed funds will help in buying a new mini-bus for GAB. The present bus is on its last legs and most likely will not pass its MOT next year!!
If you have any ideas for fundraising or would like to help GAB through volunteering or fundraising please ring Sharon Beckett on 01495 763650.
Wales & West Vision Conference, 2008
The conference on 3rd April at the University of Newport, Caerleon Campus was a huge success by anyone's standards! The conference was attended by about 120 delegates, and many had travelled from as far away as Dudley, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Wiltshire and Carmarthenshire.
I think the weather contributed to some degree to the success of the day as it was a beautiful spring day, but I think the stars of the day were the brilliant speakers, many of whom had travelled a long way to be there.
Sharon Beckett, Chief Executive Officer welcomed the delegates to the conference and introduced them to the Chair for the day, Adrian Read, Retired Service Manager of Older People Services at Caerphilly CBC. Adrian set the scene for the day and introduced Dick Roberts (speakng in the photograph above), the Chief Optometric Adviser at the Welsh Assembly Government who gave the Opening Address and spoke about the Welsh Low Vision Scheme and also said the Minister for Health was aware that GAB had organized this conference and also of the wonderful work GAB does for the blind and partially sighted in Gwent.
The key-note speaker for the day was Professor Peter Coffey from The London Project to Cure Blindness at University College London who spoke about cutting edge stem cell research on Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). Professor Coffey's presentation was extremely interesting and imformative and you could see from the faces in the audience that everyone was completely absorbed in listening to the great strides being made into the development of stem cell research and there is such hope that some day not too far off in the future people will not necessarily have to lose their sight due to AMD.
The second speaker for the day was John Collins from Optima Low Vision Services and he spoke about the need for different agencies and professionals to work together and provide a seamless service for blind and partially sighted people. He then explained about how to carry out a low vision assessment and the wide variety of magnifiers and optical aids which people with sight loss can use to enable them to make use of what little sight they may have left. He spoke about the importance of good lighting and how essential it is when trying to enable service users to carry out everyday tasks.
After a sumptuous lunch the delegates had a wonderful opportunity to either sit in the University gardens and enjoy the early spring sun or visit the excellent exhibition of latest technological aids and equipment and services available for people who are blind or partially sighted. I think it was a tough choice for some delegates!
The first speaker in the afternoon session was Dr Alison Hood from Guide Dogs for the Blind who had traveled all the way from Glasgow! She spoke most eloquently on Acquired Brain Injury and its Impact on Sight Loss. One could hear a pin drop when Dr Hood spoke! She gave statistics saying 1 million people in Britain each year sustain brain injury and then went on to describe that depending on the area of brain that is damaged what would be the consequences on the person affected in terms of physical (and obviously sight), emotional or behavioural problems. Dr Hood finished her brilliant presentation by saying "when dealing with individuals with Acquired Brain Injury THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX! "
The last, but definitely not the least, speaker for the afternoon was Karen Phillips, Orthoptist Glaucoma Specialist from Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend. Karen spoke about Glaucoma and explained beautifully and in 'easy to understand language', what is glaucoma?; current diagnosis and management methods; what it is like to live with glaucoma and finally how Princess of Wales is the only hospital in Wales where Orthoptists triage referrals and how this has reduced the waiting time for patients.
GAB would like to take this opportunity to thank Adrian Read for Chairing the day so exceptionally well and all the speakers for their brilliant presentations and taking time from their extremely busy schedules to speak at our conference.
Bath Half Marathon
Sam Marsh, who works at Clark Foods in Risca, ran the Bath Half Marathon on 16th March and raised much needed funds for GAB. Well done Sam, and thank-you!