Welcome to Eye Matter Matters issue 48, our fortnightly publication sharing news and information about events, activities, members’ experiences and other items of interest. Unless otherwise stated, all articles have been written by Fiona Musgrove.
Edited by George Sarcov and Paul Grierson.
To contribute to a future edition, please email: fiona@eyematter.org.uk
Important Notices
Eye Matter Annual Membership runs from 1st April 2026 to 31st March 2027 and is now due if you’re looking to become a member or are ready to renew your membership.
£15 covers access to a range of online activities, up-to-date information, receiving our newsletter and an excellent guide to our events. To ensure your continued access to our on-line and in-person events, please click this JustGiving link to pay your membership fee, ticking the Gift Aid option if applicable.
Alternatively, please pay by bank transfer:
Name: Eye Matter
Sort Code: 20-92-63
Account Number: 83521087
Business bank account
Please always remember to email if you have made this payment and ensure we have the reference you used.
Volunteering Opportunities
We are seeking to recruit more Sighted Guides to support our fabulous events. No experience is necessary. Read more
All our future outings can be found in this one place, along with information about past activities and Members’ reviews.
Here are a Few Highlights:
Audio Described Tour of London Zoo
When: Tuesday 15th September
Where: London Zoo, Outer Cir, London NW1 4RY
Meet & Greet: 10:00am Baker Street Station
Cost: £7.00
Learn more here
In Person Neurobics with Steve Wax
When: Sunday 4th October 2026
Where: King’s Cross
Meet & Greet: 2:45pm at St Pancras Station, by Midland Road Exit at the Thameslink barriers.
Cost: £5.00
For more details check out our events page here
Zoom Activities
All our Zoom activities, including weekly schedules, BookWorms, Inspiring Speakers, Bounce, cookery, concerts and much more can be accessed in one place, here
Here are Some Highlights
Discover the Power of Pranic Healing
When: Friday 28th August
Discover the Power of Pranic Healing with Rohit Sujanani in two introductory sessions with Eye Matter
Pranic Healing is a gentle, non-touch complementary therapy that works with the body’s energy system – including the aura and chakras – to support emotional, mental and physical well-being. It is designed to complement, not replace, conventional medicine and is now being taught to doctors and healthcare professionals around the world. This is a wonderful opportunity to experience this fascinating holistic approach for yourself. Whether you’re simply curious or looking for new ways to support your well-being, everyone is welcome.
To discover more about our Tranquil Tuesday sessions, click here
Eye Matter News
You can stay in touch with all Eye Matter news here
Eye Matter becomes a multi award winner
On Wednesday 8th July 2026, at the Clarion Awards, Eye Matter, together with julescreativecontent.com won two fabulous awards. The first was the bronze award for ‘Innovation in a Film’ and the second was the silver award for ‘Best Social Welfare Film’. You can read more here
‘finding my purpose’, with Eye Matter and VocalEyes at Avenue Q
Thirty Eye Matter members attended an audio described performance of Avenue Q on Tuesday 23rd June at The Shaftsbury Theatre, kindly supported by VocalEyes. Before the show we were introduced backstage to some of the marvellous puppets and their puppeteers. The puppeteers explained how they work alongside human actors on stage. Each demonstrated their on-stage voices for us to recognise. Although in appearance the puppets resembled those from TV’s Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock, their content and dialogue was certainly not for young ears, particularly as the basic storyline is set in a supposedly typical street with a variety of residents whose lives are intermingled to one common purpose – but not ‘porn’!
Rachel really enjoyed her evening, “Thank you Eye Matter for another fantastic theatre outing, a wonderful touch tour and a fantastic audio description – thanks to our friends at VocalEyes. It was an hilarious production, so much so that my face hurts from laughing! Thank you to Suzie and everyone, and especially to Jo who did such brilliant guiding for me. A very happy night.” To read more, click here
And you can read the ‘VocalEyes’ take on the evening here
Visitors to The Producers said, “It was shocking, extreme and eccentric!”
Our members said, “It was a frivolous extravaganza.”
An exclusive insight into how this very visual production was delivered to blind people.
On Wednesday 15th July 2026, almost 30 Eye Matter members decided to ignore the England vs Argentina World Cup semi-final and head to the Garrick Theatre to enjoy an evening of extreme, eccentric humour with The Producers. This intimate, 733-seat theatre, with a stage protruding into the auditorium and a 12-piece swing band perched above, (apart from the drummer lurking somewhere beneath the actors’ feet), continues its reputation of presenting unique productions since opening in 1889.
Graham, who attended with his wife Rosalind, said, “Many thanks to Suzie and the team, for organising the trip to the Producers. It was highly entertaining! The staff and cast at the Garrick were very friendly, helpful and informative. I thoroughly enjoyed the touch tour, which was very well done, as was the audio description. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable evening.”
Ibrahim agreed, “I just wanted to give a big shout-out and thank you to Eye Matter for organising this event, it was a really good show and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The Support as offered by Joe and Hayley was spot-on.”
Delivered as an audio described performance of a very visual production, The Producers proved a challenge for our fabulous describer Jonathan Nash.
Jonathan, from Sightlines Audio Description Services said, The Producers was certainly a challenging show to work on, but great fun nonetheless. Comedy is always the hardest genre to describe as we have to time our delivery so the joke lands at the very same moment for everyone. Visual jokes sometimes require an additional set up, perhaps mentioning the item that caused the hilarity within the pre-show notes or on the touch tour but without any specific scene reference to avoid spoilers.” You can read the full article here
“We will rock you,” and the Eye Matter Singers did!
On Saturday 18th July, nearly 40 Eye Matter members attended our annual ‘Songs in Summertime’ concert to hear, (and see), the UK’s only peer-led, visually-impaired singing group. This show was the culmination of more than twelve weeks of Zoom rehearsals by the ‘Eye Matter Singers’, a group from across the UK, who had never even met before, let alone sung together as a choir. Despite this geographical spread, the group got together to perform an eclectic mix of ten songs including solos, duets and even instrumentals.
This summer ten members took part in our Eye Matter Singers concert: Gheorghe Sarvoc, Carrie Thould, Daniel Griffiths, Amrit Dhaliwal, Jane Sellers, Kevin Pereira, Suzie Simons, Andreas Georgiou, Thuy Mallalieu on the piano and Rachel Bowden Waterson as singing teacher.
Carrie offered her congratulations to Eye Matter, ‘I was so impressed by the sense of friendship and encouragement given to each other within this choir. There were no egos, just a shared camaraderie which made it a joy to be a part of. I travelled from Gloucestershire to attend my first Eye Matter Singers concert and absolutely loved it.”
“The afternoon was a toe-tapping, sing-along.’ Yet again showing the array of talent within Eye Matter and the fun that can be had.
Suzie agreed, “The concert was amazing. I was told by so many people that this was our best yet. I’m very proud of the Eye Matter Singers and friends, along with our choir teacher Rachel, they are all so talented. Please click here for the full article, a video description and much more. Read more.
Rachel Bowden Waterson has now been our Choir teacher for over a year. All her life she has loved singing and listening to music, “I feel that Saturday’s concert was the Eye Matter singer’s’ best yet”, she said, “after months of rehearsing on Zoom, it was wonderful to come together to sing as a group. There were also terrific solos with a mixture of guitar, piano and backing tracks which made for a joyous, upbeat concert filled with fun from start to finish. Read more here
There will be another opportunity later this year to join the Eye Matter Singers and take part in our Christmas Concert in December.
Tranquil Tuesdays with Laura Brodie.
August’s Mindfulness and Emotional Well-being is part of Eye Matter’s Tranquil Tuesday’s series with Laura Brodie.
Making Space for What Is: Learning to Allow and Accept Difficult Emotions
“Much of our suffering comes from the gap between life as it is and life as the mind thinks it should be” – Melli O’Brien
In this session, Eye Matter explored what happens when an unpleasant emotion appears and our first response is to resist it, judge it or wish it would go away. We reflected on emotions such as anxiety, sadness, loneliness, anger, fear, and disappointment. These emotions can be uncomfortable, yet they often carry useful information about a loss, an unmet need, a boundary, a threat, or something that matters deeply to us.
Laura showed Eye Matter how to use the story of “The North Wind and the Sun” to explore the difference between force and warmth. The harder the Wind blew, the more tightly the traveller held onto his cloak. The Sun created warmth and the traveller gradually loosened his grip.
Our relationship with difficult emotions can work in a similar way. Resistance often adds another layer of tension. Allowing, creates more space around the experience.
Amongst the personal reflections from this session Rosie said, “A huge thanks to Eye Matter, for providing another chance for us to work with Laura again. I’m really looking forward to her September weekly course.”
From September Laura will be providing these sessions as part of her weekly Marvellous ME Monday’s mindfulness series but, if you want to reflect on the past few months please click here
Ahoy there sailor!
Annual Sailing Vision Week
‘From its humble beginnings’, Sailing Vision Week has evolved into a cherished annual event with around 20 boats catering for approximately 40 blind and partially-sighted sailors. Earlier this year the event celebrated its golden anniversary and has become a regular event for the more ‘seaworthy’ sailor, whilst for others, it’s a great way to experience sailing for the first time.
Some of the yachts are generously donated, whilst others are chartered. The skippers and sighted crew members are volunteers from a wide range of nautical backgrounds. They include local club sailors; sailors who cruise around the world and even sailors who simply race. Some of the skippers and crew have volunteered for many years so not only have a great deal of sailing knowledge but also experience of sailing with visually impaired and blind people.
The large flotilla of yachts is divided into four smaller groups or ‘fleets’, allowing them to explore a variety of destinations each day. The mixed crew work together on various tasks, including mooring at a different location each night. Mornings begin with schedule and weather updates for all crew members. It is a great opportunity to learn new skills, meet new people and discover new locations around our beautiful coastline.
The crew have been invited to talk at one of our ‘Inspiring Speakers’ Zoom sessions later this year, ahead of the opening for applications for Sailing Vision Week 2027. You can read about Sailing Vision Week here
For a video about Sailing Vision Week click here
For further enquiries email: mail@sailingvision.org
Help from Staff – Travelling with TfL
Eye Matter’s member Daniel has sent us more information about further support provided by TFL’s Turn Up and Go.
This ensures members of staff can assist with small pieces of luggage when guiding a visually impaired person and they can equally push a wheelchair if required. Please read more here
Eye Matter is a registered charity, our charity number is: 1202241
Contact: Email: info@eyematter.org.uk or Tel: 07968 722664