Yo yo!

So, I have decided to run a half marathon to raise money for a local independent charity in my home town. I will cry. I may die. I wont win. End.

The Wirral Society for the Blind and Partially Sighted have helped my grandad out big time over the past few years. Every week, they send my grandad a talking newspaper on a USB stick so he can keep up to date with the local news.... in between his daily dose of the 6 o'clock and 10 o'clock news and hourly news updates on the radio... Grandad loves the news.

He has a huge TV in the living room attached to a camera, so he can magnify anything small he wants to see, such as birthday cards and school photographs of his millions of grandchildren. Sadly his eyes are too crap for that now, so he just has earphones and mega speakers instead, and we crank up the volume to industrial levels. Poor dear Mrs Smith next door... :b

He has a wide array of gadgets - the incessantly beeping ones are particularly welcome: a hot water alarm to help him pour a nice safe brew 26 times a day; a smoke alarm that calls the fire service for him if there's a problem; industrial strength magnifying glasses; simplified remote control for the TV; handrails to guide him to his tomatoes in the garden and a mahoosive telephone he can easily dial his family on when he needs them. Or just fancies a chat. At 2am.

All of these have come from WSBPS, or have been partially funded by them.

'A luv me Grandad.' He's 92 years old and still going strong. I know most of this is down to his amazing family sticking together like glue... and possibly his long suffering guardian angel. But without all the little things that help him through his day, his down right refusal to give in to partial blindness, deafness and old age probably wouldn't be as strong!

As well as all of this, the WSBPS run yoga classes, Braille classes and arts and history classes for the partially sighted or blind, have an audio library of books and local newspapers, and have a great outreach programme for people newly diagnosed with sight problems.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. If you would like to sponsor me to do this running thing, know the money will go to an amazing cause. Not a huge nationwide organisation, but a small locally run charity where every penny makes a difference. Which is a good thing. Because we're all going to end up blind as bats and needing all the help we can get before the end. Might as well pump the money in while I've got legs to run like.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Thanks!

Peace out xxx