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Podcast for Vision 72, June/July 2015

1. Insert new RNIB audio logo: RNIB – supporting people with sight loss

2. NICKY: Hello and welcome to the June 2015 podcast for Vision – the magazine for members of RNIB. My name is Nicky Barranger and I present the audio version of the magazine. This is just a taste of Vision which is produced as a 78 minute long radio-style programme on CD. Vision includes news, features, competitions and letters from members of RNIB. In this podcast we hear from a couple who found that romance blossomed after they met at a Blind Veterans UK centre. And in our letters and tips section, two friends tell us how they set up VI Talks, an online group for people with sight loss, which has also blossomed! You may well have seen the film, Gone Girl, recently? Well our resident audio book review, Vidar Hjardeng, tells us what he thought of the book.

We currently have an offer for a free nine month trial of membership. It is easy to join, just sign up at .uk/membership or call the membership team on 0303 123 4555. You’ll receive regular copies of Vision magazine and a range of other member benefits including access to our new Vision online community. At the end of this podcast, you’ll also find an information directory with all the key contacts for RNIB and a section listing some of the free guides that are available to help you live independently and make the most out of life.

3. ALEC IDENT: YOUR VOICE - WE MET AT A BLIND VETERANS UK CENTRE

4. NICKY: When Nancy Roberts went on holiday to a Blind Veterans UK centre in Brighton she wasn’t looking for love – in fact that was the last thing on her mind….. until, that is, she met Dennis Hatch. Dennis and Nancy told Vision producer Kim Normanton over the phone about how they met.

5. Dennis:

My name is Dennis Hatch, I’m 89, I lost my sight through macular degeneration which started about eight years ago I suppose. I’ve been a member of Blind Veterans UK for about five years. I’ll let you go over to Nancy now.

Nancy:

Hello, I’m Nancy Roberts, I’m 84 years old. I’ve been a widow of Blind Veterans UK for about 10 years now: my husband Ted went totally blind overnight ten years ago and we became members of Blind Veterans UK and they did so much to help me and to relieve me of a lot of the pressure, you know, 24 hour care of Ted and he died - it’ll be 7 years ago this year, and Blind Veterans have still looked after me as a widow, and I could go down to their holiday home at either Brighton or Llandudno two or three times a year and it’s lovely to be able to socialise with other people who’ve been in the same position as myself. And then in September 2013 I went down to the Brighton one, no intention of looking for anybody - I was quite content, you know, and suddenly this gentleman came and sat opposite me and I’ll put you onto him now!

Dennis:

Well I was married for just over 60 years. My wife managed to hang on before she passed away so that she could get to the 60th anniversary. I had a great companion in my wife, we had a very very good 60 years, and when she passed away, I lost a very good friend. And as the months crept by I got lonely and depressed. I didn’t like being on my own.

Although I had a daughter and a son, they had their own lives and they must lead their own lives. The reason I went to Brighton Centre at that time - I was becoming miserable and I said to my son, I wasn’t very happy and he said to me, “For goodness sake get back down to Brighton, you always come home happy from there”, and that was how I came to go to Brighton that time and as Nancy said I got there for breakfast on the 18 September 2013 and there she was sat opposite all smiles lovely sunshine everything. My coffee and whatnot turned up and I went to pour her a cup of coffee and I have a little shake in my right hand and I don’t know whether it was the fact that she was sat opposite or what, I don’t know, but I seemed to shake more that morning, so she told me to put it down, which I did, and then she poured it, and then she finished up buttering my toast as well, and then this carried on for the whole holiday and we just sort of clicked, and when we left we said cheerio, and I don’t know, the phone went nonstop both ways. I live down in south Gloucester and Nancy lived in Worcester, just an hour by fast taxi, and I finished up coming to Nancy’s home and a couple of weeks later Nancy came to my home, we finished up back in Brighton again and that’s how it went on. Well, it got so expensive travelling backwards and forwards because we’d done it by taxi that we decided to move in, and here we are.

Kim:

Hooray! What was it about Nancy that attracted you?

Dennis:

I don’t know, it was just her smile, her friendliness, just her whole being really.

Nancy:

We’ve got the same witty sense of humour.

Kim:

And how long have you been together now?

Nancy:

October 4th last year, living together that is.

Dennis:

Living together. I mean, Nancy had a happy marriage, I had a happy marriage, I have a daughter and a son, they both welcome Nancy. As far as Nancy is concerned she’s got another family now.

Kim:

Would you think of getting married again or is that not a necessary thing because you’re happy anyway?

Dennis:

Yeah, no we’re too old to get married again.

Nancy:

Everybody’s happy for us so, you know, what’s the point, quite honestly at our age? I mean, I’m going to be 85 very soon and Dennis will be 90 later this year. Really, what is the point in getting married?

Dennis:

I mean we couldn’t be closer – you might get two 18 year olds sitting holding hands, but you get two 80 years olds sitting holding hands, and at the moment now I am very happy, I never dreamt of living with another woman, having anything to do with another woman and here I am, I’m well and truly hooked, I’ll do whatever I can for her, and that’s all I can say.

6. NICKY: Ah what a lovely story. Thanks to Dennis and Nancy for sharing that. Blind Veterans UK are celebrating its centenary this year. They provide free support and services for people with significant sight loss who’ve done National Service or served in the Armed Forces. And it doesn’t matter when you lost your sight, even if it’s years after you were in service. To find out more, visit .uk or call 0800 389 7979.

7. ALEC IDENT: YOUR LETTERS

NICKY: Lots of our members send in letters and tips for us to share with other members. And each edition we have a star letter prize. Our star letter for this edition comes from two friends, Jo Fishwick [pron Fish-wick] and Michael Allen, who were schoolmates many years ago at a school for the blind in Liverpool. Just over a year ago they launched VI Talk, an online group which has taken off like a rocket and currently has over 600 members. Here they are to tell you more.

8. Jo:

Hi everyone, my name’s Jo Fishwick, I’m 43 years old. I am totally blind. I wanted to tell you all about a group that I co-run with a friend Michael Allen called VI Talk. The tagline for VI Talk is sharing ideas, information and support. We’re completely voluntary and we don’t charge people for membership or anything like that, it is pretty much internet based or social media based, and it is a support group primarily but with lots of add-ons, I guess. We do regular podcasts where we interview lots of people, we have people who blog for us about anything and everything from employment, politics, voting and how you go about it as a visually impaired person. All of the VI Talk team are visually impaired themselves to one degree or another which means that we have a real understanding of what it’s like.

Michael: I’m Michael Allen, I am from Oldham, a guide dog user and I do manage quite well. To sum VI Talk up, what we set it up to be is somewhere where anyone with any connection with visual impairment can come together, be that a blind person, a rehab worker, a parent - and what we’ve done is we’ve set up a large community on Facebook which is a closed, safe group where people come together and ask questions to share and we do a lot of audio using a platform called audioBoom.

However, you can access all of our audio by other means like iTunes, through Sonata Player by British Wireless for the Blind, a few of the topics that have been discussed will be guidedogs, also people have been asking about different sight conditions, if they’ve got children… We will discuss pretty much most topics, and it means the world, it’s amazing the people we’ve reached, it was, you know, a small idea, a small idea that’s blossomed really into quite a large social media venture.

Jo: I have met some amazing people, very inspirational people, it really is an amazing place to be, people are really supportive of each other, sharing information, and that’s what it’s all about, really, VI Talk really is about sharing.

9. NICKY: Thank you to Jo Fishwick and Michael Allen. Sounds like you’ve tapped a rich vein there. If anyone wants to join VI Talk or just check it out - go to vitalk.co.uk. If you prefer to call, the voicemail is 0161 298 8255 or you can email info@vitalk.co.uk And for their star letter prize, Jo and Michael can get 25 per cent off a product from RNIB’s shop – although they’ll need to choose something they can share! The star letter prize for the August/September edition is one of our new and improved PenFriend audio labellers. So, why not join as a member and air your views and share your tips? You never know, you might even get the next star letter prize!

10. ALEC: IDENT: LIFESTYLE - AUDIO BOOK REVIEW OF GONE GIRL BY GILLIAN FLYNN

11. NICKY: Another film that everyone has been talking about is Gone Girl, based on the very popular novel by Gillian Flynn – in fact this is one of the most requested books on RNIB Overdrive, our digital download library service. Our resident reviewer, Vidar Hjardeng, RNIB Trustee and Diversity Consultant for ITV news, told Vision Editor, Clare Conley, what he thought.

12. Vidar:

Well I enjoyed it Clare, and I have to say that I didn’t expect the book to end the way it did. It’s always difficult when we’re chatting and reviewing thrillers or who-dunnits or that type of novel to say too much about the plot, the story, without giving the game away, but it’s probably fair to say, I think I can do it the following way, in that the book opens on the fifth wedding anniversary of Nick Dunne and his wife Amy, and Amy disappears, and very quickly the police suspect that Nick is primarily responsible for his wife’s disappearance, and indeed all the initial signs would suggest that that is indeed the case. Various things come up on his computer, he denies any knowledge of his searches but they do point to him, there is a series of rather odd phone calls, persistent phone calls at that, that come in that again would seem to endorse what the police think, namely Nick Dunne has something to do with Amy’s disappearance. But then things develop in quite a clever way, and so what I will say is that Amy does reappear and that isn’t giving too much away because there’s a lot more besides, so, interesting, clever, and something that I didn’t expect to unfold the way it did.

13. Clare:

So this is told through the viewpoints of two different people. How did that work in the audio version?

14. Vidar:

I suspect it might arguably work better in the audio version than in fact if you’re reading it from the printed page, because, surprise surprise, with two people telling the story in terms of the recording we had two people delivering it and Christopher Ragland and Rachel Louise Miller did the honours, playing Nick Dunne and indeed Amy. And I think that works very effectively because in many ways it is their accounts of what happens both after Amy’s disappearance and with the many flashbacks that there are as well, with Amy’s diary, and with the context being filled in as the novel unfolds in terms of how their marriage had been, and how they got together and their hinterland really as young people and as adults so I think actually it’s a real plus for the audio version to have the two narrators, and very skilled narrators, I thought they were, too.

15. Clare:

So the novelist who wrote this, Gillian Flynn, she’s American and this is set in America, but I happen to know that one of the narrators, Rachel, isn’t. Did you detect an accent?

16. Vidar:

Well I have to say, I didn’t know that until you said that to me now, Clare, and I would say that I found, as a listener, not being an expert in terms of American accents, but I found it very convincing, and I just assumed, perhaps naively, that both narrators were indeed indigenous Americans so I think that’s even more credit particularly to her, obviously, in that case, to make it sound so authentic.

17. Clare:

The Guardian reviewed this book and said that it’s “a dark, searingly intelligent new thriller” and said it’s a “must read” – would you agree Vidar?

18. Vidar:

I think I would say it is a must read but I would give it a health warning and it’s quite interesting because when I started to listen to it, Clare, and it was something that I had heard of and clearly with the film having come out in the last six months I was aware of it, but what I wasn’t necessarily expecting was in the opening few paragraphs of the notes at the start of the recording it talks about the use of swear words, and I would say that not just in terms of the language that’s employed throughout the novel, it’s also a question of some of the graphic scenes that are described within the novel. It’s not for the faint hearted, I think it’s fair to say, and there’s a fair sprinkling of what I might term anglo-saxon vocabulary so if that offends you then I think you might find that a bit of a barrier to enjoying or getting into the story. That said, I think it’s Gillian Flynn’s third novel, and Sharp Objects and Dark Places are two which have been critically acclaimed, and this is another, and I think the Guardian’s not done a bad job in summing it up the way it is, because it is quite a dark novel in many ways, it leaves, or certainly left me feeling rather uncomfortable at the end and it wouldn’t have been the solution that, had I been Nick Dunne, I would have wanted to end up with, and I will perhaps just leave it at that.

Actually, I probably would quite like to give a try to one of Gillian Flynn’s other works, again because they’ve been critically acclaimed. A former journalist, who used to be a TV critic actually, and interesting just listening to some of the notes at the end of the audio version which are again interesting nuggets, talking about how she drew up the characters, whether or not she regards them herself as empathetic or sympathetic characters, a little bit of background into how she drew the novel together, that added to my enjoyment as well, so an extra bonus.

19. Clare:

So has it make you want to go and see the film?

20. Vidar:

Yes I think so, I think anything that you’ve enjoyed, or even actually if you haven’t enjoyed it, it’s always good to compare and contrast, you know, the onscreen version of a title compared with the literary version and yeah, I guess I would be interested to see how they’re portrayed, and I suppose I will remember in my mind as many of us do, perhaps, who consume audio books, the voices and I come back to this point about the skilled narration of Rachel indeed of Christopher and I’d be interested to know how the characters in the film portray those roles and whether it’s as authentic sounding and as successful.

21. NICKY: Thank you to Vidar Hjardeng and Clare Conley. For those of you who are interested in reading Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, it’s available to borrow from the RNIB Library in giant print, braille and as a talking book on DAISY or USB stick. Call the Helpline on 0303 123 999. It’s also available as a digital download on RNIB Overdrive. In fact, RNIB’s full catalogue of more than 20,000 books has now been added to the Overdrive library for you to download and enjoy on your computer, smartphone or tablet. And if you’d like a free month’s trial of the service to find out whether it’s right for you, please email overdrive@.uk.

22. ALEC: IDENT: YOUR VISION MAGAZINE

23. NICKY: If you’d like to send a letter to Vision magazine, you can either post a letter to Vision magazine at RNIB, 105 Judd Street, London WC1H 9NE or email Visionmagazine@.uk or telephone the Vision messageline on 0845 330 4134.

24. ALEC: You can find out more about Vision magazine or listen to the free Viison podcast at .uk/Visionmagazine.

25. NICKY: And if you need to change your contact details or to receive Vision in a different format, it’s available in Large Print, 16 point, Braille, CD, or Daisy CD and email. Please contact the Membership team.

26. ALEC: To advertise in Vision, contact Landmark publishing on 0207 520 9474 or email Sharon@lps.co.uk.

27. ALEC: RNIB INFORMATION DIRECTORY

28. NICKY: Here is a directory to help you get the information and services you need from RNIB more easily.

29. ALEC: The membership team is on 0303 1234 555, the email address is membership@.uk or visit .uk/membership.

30. NICKY: Helpline – get eye health information, emotional support, benefits advice and product information. Call 0303 123 9999, email helpline@.uk or visit .uk/ask. Lines are open Monday to Friday, 8.45am – 5.30pm and calls cost no more than a standard rate call to an 01 or 02 number.

31. ALEC: Fundraising – find out how you can support our work. Call 0845 345 0054, email fundraising@.uk or visit .uk/donate.

32. NICKY: Volunteering – give a little time, make a big difference. Call 0845 603 0575, email volunteering@.uk or visit .uk/volunteering

33. ALEC: Campaigning – campaign on the issues that matter to you. Call 0207 391 2123, email campaign@.uk or visit .uk/campaigning.

34. ALEC: FREE GUIDES AVAILABLE FROM RNIB

35. NICKY: We have a range of guides that you can find online at .uk/resources or you can order in your preferred format free of charge. Call the Helpline on 0303 123 9999 or email helpline@.uk.

36. ALEC: The “Understanding” series is for people who want to understand more about their eye condition. Titles in this series include: cataracts; Charles Bonnet Syndrome; dry eye; eye conditions related to diabetes; glaucoma; nystagmus; posterior vitreous detachment; retinal detachment; retinitis pigmentosa.

37. NICKY: The “Starting Out” series is for people who have recently been diagnosed with an eye condition. Titles in the series include: Benefits, concessions and registration; Education; Emotional support; Help from social services; Housing; Making the most of your sight.

38. ALEC: The “Confident Living” series is for people who want to make the most of living with sight loss. Titles in the series include: Leisure; Living Safely; Managing your money; Reading; Shopping; Technology; Travel.

39. NICKY: Well, that’s it for this edition of the Vision podcast. We hope you enjoyed this little taster of Vision magazine. If you’d like to join RNIB as a member and get the full 78 minute magazine on CD or perhaps in an another format, six times a year, plus there’s a range of other benefits, please visit .uk/membership or you can call the membership team on 0303 1234 555.

Vision magazine is edited by Clare Conley, the audio producer is Kim Normanton and the sound engineer is Richard Armstrong.

Copyright RNIB June 2015.

Registered charity number 226 227.

Insert: RNIB NEW AUDIO LOGO: RNIB – Supporting people with sight loss

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