Dear members, friends and supporters,
Eye Matter is delighted to share “Eye Matter, Our Journey”, a unique and emotive film that aims to show, not tell, people how it feels to be blind.
Launched to coincide with “Disabled Access Day” on Monday, 16th March, The newly launched film uses integrated audio description within a powerful and creative animation. The film features the voices and lived experiences of Eye Matter members, who describe images representing what the charity means to them. As the animation unfolds, these reflections come together to reveal a shared message of gratitude and a call to action to support Eye Matter’s vital work by making a donation. Just £10 a month will provide training, support and give hope to someone living with Sight Loss.
Suzie Simons, Eye Matter’s Founder and Coordinator says, “We are incredibly grateful to everyone who contributed to the film. It is a celebration of the resilience of our community, and a reminder of the importance of supporting people living with sight loss. We wanted these stories to be told in an accessible and meaningful way, and we hope it encourages everyone to learn more about Eye Matter and to donate towards our crucial work. Special thanks to JulesCreativeContent.com for producing the film with such care and compassion.
“Eye Matter, Our journey” is now available to watch and share
Thank you, we couldn’t do all we do without you.
https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/eyematterourjourney
Welcome to the world of Eye Matter, where we create connections that truly matter for people with visual impairment. Our mission is to entertain, educate and empower. Eye Matter has delivered over 300 Zoom events this year including book clubs, concerts, Zumba, creative writing, poetry and drama workshops. Our regular outings have included theatre trips, art galleries, sledging, zip wiring, sports days, comedy evenings, climbing the O2 and much more.
We appreciate there are times when support is needed in sight loss journeys and this is provided in our twice monthly ‘Surviving to Thriving’ Zoom grief programme (supported by our regular blog) and three times a year in-person session.
Many of our facilitators are themselves visually impaired, enabling them to provide a more empathic service. Our £15 per year membership allows access to a multitude of exciting opportunities both through Zoom and in-person.
Zoom schedule for week starting 27th April
Join us for a week of connection, creativity, and wellbeing. From thoughtful conversations about grief and emotional resilience on Monday, to confidence-building through laughter and self-discovery, the week begins with a focus on personal growth and empowerment. On Tuesday, unwind in a welcoming social space before gently reconnecting with your body through accessible, restorative yoga. Midweek brings a chance to catch up with friends across the UK in a relaxed and friendly setting, perfect for sharing experiences and staying connected. We round off the week on Friday with another social gathering, followed by an inspiring creative writing session.
Monday 1:30pm-3pm "Turning Surviving into Thriving" facilitated by Joanna Williams.
- What we talk about when we talk about grief
How easy or hard do you find it to talk to others about your emotions around your sight loss? In this session we’ll discuss whether framing the conversation around grief can be useful in terms of helping people in your life understand.
"Marvellous Me Mondays" continues at 6pm with Confidence Coaching with Victoria Hogg
Vic Hogg is a confidence coach and comedy expert who uses improvised comedy as a teaching tool. She trains people to understand how to tap into greater confidence.
This five-week course is all about confidence: what confidence is, why it’s sometimes hard to find, where to find it and how to hold onto it. Inclusive for blind and visually impaired people. It’s an accessible, lighthearted journey of self-discovery that will offer tools and techniques towards gaining more confidence.
Tuesday 6pm Fun and friendly social followed by yoga with Cassie
Tranquil Tuesday series begins with yoga lead by blind yoga instructor Cassie.
Cassie introduces herself, “I am a blind yoga instructor who believes yoga is something you feel, not something you perform. Through slow, restorative practices and clear, thoughtful verbal guidance, I help students tune into their bodies, their breath and the quiet strength within themselves.”
Her monthly classes focus on accessibility, deep listening, and meeting each person exactly where they are, “As someone who experiences the world without sight, I teach yoga through sensation, awareness, and trust in the body.”
Cassie’s goal is to create a space where people can slow down, breathe, and reconnect with themselves in a gentle and supportive way. “I hope my work reminds people that yoga isn’t about what a pose looks like - it’s about how it feels to be at home in your own body.”
Please bring a yoga mat or a towel and pillow.
Wednesday 11am Eye Matter Natter with Sarah. Enjoy this midweek highlight and connect with friends from across the UK.
Friday 11am Fun and friendly social followed by cathartic writing with Joanna Williams
Release your inner writer in these cathartic creative writing sessions. We will meet on zoom once a month and discuss a different theme each time. Facilitator Joanna will share pieces of writing on the theme, from selected works of fiction, memoir, or creative nonfiction, and we'll discuss how we feel about the pieces. Then, you'll be invited to use the class as inspiration to create your own piece of writing in the intervening weeks, to be shared at the next class if you so choose. You can send the writing to Joanna in advance or read it yourself. There is no obligation to write or to share; if you prefer to just listen, that's fine, too.
Joanna Williams is a qualified counsellor and also a novelist (published under the name Joanna Barnard). She is very interested in the intersection between creative writing and mental health and has been facilitating writing for wellbeing classes for over seven years, as well as using therapeutic writing tools in her counselling practice.
Embracing womanhood.
Our Tranquil Tuesdays series began on Tuesday, 7th April, with Jaspreet Dhoot, a female health coach who delivered a women-only health session to 10 Eye Matter members.
Jaspreet is a health and wellbeing professional with a strong focus on supporting
women’s health. She is Female Health Qualified, with specialist knowledge in areas such as hormonal health, menopause, and lifestyle strategies that support women’s physical and emotional wellbeing.
There was a wide range of different-aged women, who were able to ask questions about the pre menopause and menopause. Within this safe, unjudgmental space, they were able to ask about what symptoms to look out for, how to cope with these changes and much more. The group also discussed the impact of celebrities who have spoken openly about their own experiences. The effect of sleep deprivation and how melatonin levels can be altered.
In a double whammy, members remembered how Laura Brodie, in our mindfulness sessions, had discussed how sight loss also affects sleep patterns. Some practical improvements were suggested, such as ensuring a quiet room, no screens at night and sprinkling lavender oil onto pillows.
Jaspreet discussed the importance of avoiding stressful situations or having coping techniques to use when confrontations arise. This can either come from meditation or deep breathing
Tranquil Tuesdays continues on Tuesday 28th April with Blind Yoga.
March’s ‘Inspiring Speaker’s extraordinary adventures on the high seas and cooking around the world.
Our March ‘Inspiring Speaker’ was the Indefatigable Penny Melville Brown.Around 20 Eye Matter members listened spellbound to the stories of heroism and determination delivered by Penny on Friday, 13th March, live on Zoom.
Her career began in the Royal Navy, where she became the first female commander.After having to medically retire, Penny turned her life to supporting other disabled people. A chance encounter with Baroness Margaret Hodge MP ledPenny to develop a business model encouraging disabled people into employment. This was operated in two mining villages over a 3-year programme to encourage disabled people into the public sector, NHS, private sector, into training and the voluntary sector. Part of this programme was for employers to recognise their own vulnerable employees and talk about the benefits of employing other disabled people as part of their workforce. However, by 2014, despite the ongoing success of this project, a disagreement with the DWP, who cut her Access to Work support, shelved the whole operation. Although an appeal was launched, it took a further 7 years to be resolved in Penny’s favour.
Two years later (2016), Penny had another idea. Like many disabled people, she realised she could never be a Paralympian and turned to her love for cooking for inspiration. She began creating videos and making Christmas cakes. Subsequently, in early 2017, she received an invitation to a competition, organised by the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired (founded in 1905). To apply for the James Holeman prize. Coincidentally, James Holeman (1768-1857) was also a Naval Officer and, equally strange, had the same eye condition as Penny.
This project took her all over the world, cooking in top restaurants, deep into a jungle, America’s largest Naval base in Virginia, and China. Running in parallel, or as a consequence of this project, was the awareness of blindness and people’s attitudes towards it. In China, she described how some of the chefs had never met a blind person before and were wary of her in their kitchens. Moreover, in bringing blind Chinese people into the kitchens, they had to be taught how to use a knife.
Whilst working with an Australian indigenous chef, they encouraged her to use an axe when cutting down leaves to wrap around the food they were about to barbecue.In Africa, she experiences discrimination from some, but was able to cook in fire pits with a blind drummer.
Penny recounted the traumatic car accident she was involved in and her marriage in 2018. During COVID, she released a succession of YouTube cookery videos and published a book about her international tour. More recently, she has published a book about disabled people’s constant fight for employment.
There was a great response to Penny’s presentation and honesty. One commented, “that it seemed as one door shut another opened.” Another member asked, “How to competently cut onions?” Penny explained having chopping boards with edges, sharp knives, cutting the top and bottom of the onion so it can stand them flat to remove their peel before cutting.
Yet another member wrote this, “This was an amazing event. I think many of us can relate to being forced into reinventing ourselves as disability appears in our lives. I had been taught to hide my disability as a child and did not have any extra help at school or college. If only I had known about the support, and as disability rights grew stronger, I would have had leverage to avoid being forced out of jobs because I could not drive or because I could not use the systems they had. Knowledge is power, and I am so grateful to hear of someone who has dedicated so much of their time and energy to assisting people to live their best possible lives. I know that this is something that Eye Matter does every day, but Penny started way back when it was even more difficult to carve a life out for yourself as a disabled person. This illustrates the fact that disabled is actually a bad term, as we all show our abilities and aptitude for finding new ways of doing things.
Thank you.
