Warwick Mayor joins charities to navigating the town with visual impairment glasses for World Sight Day
The Mayor of Warwick joined representatives from two charities to mar k ‘World Sight Day’ and to help raise awareness.
In what has become an annual tradition, the Warwick Lions Club alongside Warwickshire Vision Support, marked World Sight Day on October 8 by leading the Mayor of Warwick, Councillor Simon Pargeter around the streets of Warwick wearing visual impairing glasses.
The activity aims to highlight the difficulties people with impaired vision experience on a daily basis.
Speaking about his experience, the Mayor of Warwick said: “I enjoyed a very thought-provoking morning experiencing Warwick from the perspective of a blind person, being guided around the town to understand the many challenges and hazards that visually impaired people face when navigating everyday life.
“Organised in support of World Sight Day, it was a valuable opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the obstacles that many people face every day and the importance of making our town as accessible and inclusive as possible.
“It was a pleasure to catch up with Keith Eales, CEO of Warwickshire Vision Support, an organisation doing fantastic work supporting people with sight loss across Warwick.
“A huge thank you to Warwick Lions Club for organising such an important morning, and to Martyn for his support.
“As Mayor of Warwick, experiences like this are a powerful reminder of why we must continue working together to make our town a place where everyone can feel safe, confident and included.”
World Sight Day is a global event aiming to raise awareness about blindness and vision impairment. It was originally started by the SightFirstCampaign of Lions Club International Foundation in 2000.
It has since been integrated into VISION 2020 and is coordinated by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) with the World Health Organization.
The Lions Club and its role with sight loss help campaigning
Lions Clubs have been helping communities focus on preventable sight loss since Helen Keller the inspirational deaf blind campaigner challenged Lions to become “Knights of the blind” in 1925.
Since then, the Lions organisation has raised more than £240million to help tackle preventative blindness.
They have also worked on projects designed to prevent blindness, restore eyesight and benefit eye care.
This included introducing the internationally recognised white cane, now in it’s electronic form and are now launching a world-wide child vision screening project for children aged four and above.
W arwick Lions are always looking for volunteers to find out more, email: [email protected] or call: 0345 833 5931.