The Big Optometry Blog tackles the Alpe d'Huez Triathlon for Blind Veterans UK

La Canicule featured regularly on the overhead gantry signs above the long, and expensive, motorways, that lead me to the Alps in late July. A quick Google confirmed the translation to be: heatwave, and that would be an abiding memory from the 2019 edition of Optician charity exploits.

Blind Veterans UK provides a wide range of help to to ex-service men and women and is a cause Optician has long supported. Many of its recipients are elderly having served in the forces many years ago and are now suffering from age-related eye disease. It also helps those injured on active services through its centre in Brighton and Llandudno and increasing in its members’ own homes. Blind Veterans UK is a practical and hands-on charity that provides the products and services visually impaired people need to improve their lives. Its teams of ROVIs (Rehabilitation Officers for the Visually Impaired) provide practical solutions to help its members live more fulfilling lives in their own homes across the country. This could be anything from an optical reading system, a talking book or a minibus to social events and respite. The prevalence of age related diseases such as macular degeneration among its members has also prompted the charity to divert resources to help in the research battle against age related disease. It is now working with other charities to divert resources to finding therapies and cures for sight stealing diseases.