Be inspired. Tune in to Lee’s first radio show!
As part of our #BlindnessAwarenessMonth celebrations, we chatted to Lee Roake about his fantastic achievement, launching his first radio show! Lee is a 17 year old with a rare genetic condition called WAGR Syndrome. Due to his vision impairment, Lee has been involved in VICTA activities from a young age, now taking part in our activities for 14 to 17 years. Lee has just started his very own radio show on Surrey Hills Radio and tells us how his volunteering led to this dream opportunity! Did you miss Lee's [...]
Be inspired. Fundraising success for this VICTA Young Achiever!
We are celebrating Dotty, who has had incredible fundraising success while earning her Young Achievers Community pin badge. So far, Dotty has raised over £600 through her sponsored walk, amazing! Dotty's parents tell us how she organised her fundraising event and what made it a great success: Dotty chose to do a sponsored walk as part of her Young Achievers Award with VICTA, we chose a 5 mile walk near Dotty’s School. We sent a message to Dotty’s friends and parents and WOW we were overwhelmed by the support we got. The walk started at West Hanningfield Village Hall [...]
Be inspired. International Mother Language Day
DofE VICTA volunteer Armaan tells us about growing up with English as his second language Hello, my name is Armaan, and I am bilingual meaning that I can speak two languages and those are ‘English and Bengali’ while I can also read Arabic and speak simple Spanish. Bangla was my first language and I learnt it from my Grandma at the age of one/two. Performing tasks such as singing in the language and generally talking with her, helped when my family moved here from Bangladesh because I could talk to them, therefore allowing me to be more connected with [...]
Be inspired. Campaigning for Braille
By Hannah Bromley-Challenor I have always loved writing, from creative writing, to making lists and notes. When my eyesight started to deteriorate in my mid-teens, I feared I would lose one of my favourite pastimes. That was until my school gave me the opportunity to learn how to read and write in Braille. Ever since then I have been passionate about Braille. It gives me the freedom to do everyday things such as write shopping lists, that I can take into town with my carers, or gather notes from lectures at university. With a Braillenote I can write emails, [...]
Be inspired. You Can Succeed; UCAS and Starting University
By Natalia Foster UCAS and University, two small but quite powerful words. For any 18 year old, the UCAS process can be stressful, challenging and all together a mystery until you are on the other side of it. As someone who completed and survived the UCAS journey, I wanted to give you my five top tips for navigating it with ease and confidence! 1. Give your personal statement that personal twist This may seem like an obvious point to make, but you would be surprised as to how much the ‘personal’ part of a personal statement is ignored. Something [...]
Be inspired. Dayzie’s writing journey
Congratulations to Dayzie Simpson whose Peace Essay entitled 'Lead with Compassion' won the MK and District Final and then the National Final in The Lions Clubs' essay writing competition. Dayzie tells us all about her experience writing her winning entry. I’ve never been very ‘creative’ or ‘imaginative’ and that’s what I struggled with when I first discovered my passion for essay writing. Being blind and not being able to see anything, I can’t do the ‘writing’ part, but as technology has advanced and I’ve learnt the skills I need. I have learnt how to touch type on a QWERTY [...]
Previous Braille Art winners on why you should get involved!
VICTA's annual Braille Art competition is open and we think you should get involved! We chatted to winners from previous years about their entries and why they loved getting creative with Braille. In 2021 Joseph was the winner in our over 10s category with his chocolate braille creation! The image features a rocket launching into space made from chocolate buttons. Joseph tells us why he thinks Braille is so important to recognise and celebrate: "I think that Braille is an important skill for people of all different levels of vision impairment to learn. Although [...]
Be inspired. We chat with Cath Gilby – Head of Para-Performance at the FA
VICTA was privileged to attend the 10 year anniversary of St. George’s Park, celebrating 10 years of success in English football. We were excited to join the celebrations and find out more about the FA's involvement supporting players with vision impairments. The FA are championing disability sport and have high hopes for the blind and partially sighted teams. We were lucky enough to meet Cath Gilby, Head of Para-Performance, who chatted to the VICTA Student Portal about the teams, her role in disability sport and getting more people involved. Watch the interview below and have a think about [...]
Short film ‘Picturesque’ aims to represent visually impaired LGBT+ people on screen
Ellie standing with here cane smiling in a field Written by Ellie Wallwork My name’s Ellie Wallwork, I’m 22 and I’m a visually impaired actor. I’ve known I wasn’t straight since I was about 14 and my sexuality, along with my disability, make up a huge part of who I am. I know I wouldn’t be the same person without these key parts of my identity. However, despite the fact that there are loads of queer blind people in the UK and all over the world, we don’t see that represented on-screen nearly enough. It’s [...]
Success – A poem by Mahalia Creft
By Mahalia Creft Success The tedious wait for the payoff of hard work to finally fall through. Accessed only from a path of constant failure, winding round and round on itself. This path is long, with rocks and stones that jut from the earth, Digging their teeth into the soles of your feet. You stumble, then you fall onto the dirty, dusty floor, Hands above your head, legs sprawled out on the ground. You get up, even though the constant fear of rejection and failure hangs over you like a cloak, dragging you down, wanting you to settle [...]
