The Beacon Centre for the Blind is celebrating a £5000 donation from local company Thomas Dudley to support its transport service.

The sight loss charity has five minibuses which are used to provide a door-to-door transport service for blind and partially sighted people across the Black Country who want to connect with their community.

The service is a lifeline for those who use it as many would otherwise be unable to get out of their home and Beacon’s transport team completes thousands of miles each year taking people from their homes to the charity’s adapted centre in Sedgley and to community activities such as swimming or bowling as well as community appointments. Beacon Centre Chief Executive Lisa Cowley said:

“We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone at Thomas Dudley for their generous £5,000 donation to support our transport service. With their help, our transport programme continues to be a beacon of independence, enabling our members to explore and connect within their community.  

“The ongoing support we have received from Thomas Dudley in recent years is so appreciated by us all here at Beacon as it fuels our mission to empower the blind and partially sighted community and helps them to live well with sight loss.”

If you’d like to find out more about Beacon’s transport service, call 01902 880 111 or email enquiries@beaconvision.org.

Thomas Dudley has now donated a total of £20,000 to support Beacon’s work since 2020. In 2022 the funding supported the charity’s information, advice, and guidance service, in 2021 it allowed the charity to deliver more than 100 cookery classes to help people impacted by sight loss regain their independence in the kitchen and in 2020 it enabled Beacon to purchase new equipment including braille technology.