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World Sight Day at Ashville Lodge

Phil Sherry — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:01:31 +0000

Once again back to the Pavilion in Birkenhead Park. This time it was for World Sight Day, and we were there mainly to raise the awareness of the charity. Among those there were The Wirral Society of the Blind and Partially Sighted, The Liaison Officer from The Eye Clinic, Arrowe Park Hospital and his assistant, the RNIB, and various commercial firms with their goods for sale. This was not a day for selling but it was very interesting meeting all the different people involved with helping those with vision problems.

Craft Fair The Pavilion in Birkenhead Park

Phil Sherry — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:43:20 +0000

This was our first real opportunity to display our goods at a Craft Fair. Held in The Pavilion in Birkenhead Park, it was supposed to be in a big marquee. Guess what? Someone forgot to order it. However, some thoughtful person managed to buy some gazebos and (nearly) everything worked out OK. The weather was good and we managed to take about £200.

Rock In The Car Park

Phil Sherry — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:54:39 +0000

Carol and Paul rocked in the car park of the Mersey Clipper pub along with members an volunteers of WSBPS. As well as selling stuff the public who came in were serenaded by some very loud but good bands. Insanity Beach were the headlining band. Also excellent was a Bob Marley sound and look alike guy called Trevor Gleason.

Rock In The Park stall

The day stayed dry for the most part and the charity benefitted to the tune of £150.

Rock In The Park: Trevor Gleason

Rock In The Park: Insanity Beach

Wirral’s Cultural Ambassador to open Exhibition

Paul Sherry — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:40:17 +0000

The Eye Fund is having an art exhibition of some of Simon’s graphics. Professional artists will be contributing some of their own impressions of Simon’s designs. Local schoolchildren have been working hard making their own copies of the same pictures.

Art by Simon Sherry

This is to be held from 12th March to 21st March in The Pavilion, Birkenhead Park, Wirral. The grand opening by Mike McCartney, Wirral’s Cultural Ambassador takes place on the 11th March by invitation only.

We will also be presenting a cheque of £4500 to the Wirral Society for the Blind and Partially sighted to help pay for a counsellor to advise people faced with losing their sight.

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2008 Roundup

Phil Sherry — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:16:14 +0000

Simon’s family wish all of his friends and supporters a very happy Christmas and a good 2009. Raise a glass to him at New Year.

The Eye Fund has had a very good first year: upwards of £26000 has been raised. There is a counsellor already working at a Wirral Eye Clinic, funded by The Eye Fund. Next year 2 more counsellors will be helping people like Simon, in London and Liverpool.

We would like to thank everyone. Please keep helping. Have you thought of a monthly donation of as little as £5? Download the form for more information. Every little helps!

Flora London Marathon 2008 Update

Phil Sherry — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 10:24:45 +0000

Of the 92,000 people that applied to take part in this most prestigious event, 45,000 people were accepted. For one reason or another, only 35,044 actually started the race but a huge 34,420 actually crossed the finish line before 6:30pm on April 13^th 2008 .

One of those proud finishers was Russell Kay, running in support of The Eye Fund. Russell successfully completed the 26.2 miles in 5 hours and 32 minutes and actually managed to run all the way — we are completely in awe of his achievement! He finished just after the Masai Warriors but before the toilet (yes really!), a couple of rhinos and the camels, as well as lots of other ordinary runners. His preparation and training helped to ensure that his only side effect was to be aching all over for a few days afterwards and already he is thinking that it might not be such a bad thing to enter again in the future.

Amazingly, even after the race is completed Russell’s sponsorship total is still rising, and currently stands at £2,448! Thank you to absolutely everybody that has helped to make Russell’s hard work so worthwhile. If you’ve not had time to sponsor Russell so far you still have until July 13th left to add your donation to http://www.justgiving.com/russellkay.

We did manage to take a few pictures of the day, that you can see here, but it just felt wrong to stop clapping and cheering just to take pictures. Official photographs will be uploaded soon.

If you’re stuck for something to do on April 26^th 2009 you could do one of two things:

you could join the thousands of heroes running to raise money in the world’s biggest fundraising event, and perhaps help to top up our funds this time next year
if running just isn’t your thing or your application isn’t successful, you could spend the day somewhere along those 26.2 miles and shout and cheer every single one of those runners — it really will be appreciated!

Entry to the Flora London Marathon is not just a matter of entering and getting in; Russell has applied most years since his last run in 1999 and not been successful until this year. So, that means that it can be difficult for charities to organise their fundraising if they can’t just decide to enter a runner. Because of that, FLM offer a certain number of tickets for sale to charities, who then offer them to runners who can guarantee to raise £XXXX amount of pounds for them. THIS is what we’re hoping to do — The Eye Fund have already applied for a small number of Golden Tickets for the 2010 event, so if you would be interested in running to support us in two years time just let us know!

Running up that hill

Phil Sherry — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:49:46 +0000

Many, many thanks to Russell Kay for entering the Flora London Marathon on our behalf, even paying his own entrance fee to maximise charity income! If you’re in the area on the day, please give Russell some support and help The Eye Fund in the process.

Sponsor Russell Kay today on his fundraising page: http://www.justgiving.com/russellkay