Trustee News

A day with some blind and partially sighted walkers has shown me how much I barely notice – and how hard it is to find the right words How many shades of green are there? Whatever the answer may be, I soon ran out of words to describe them. I was walking north along the Grand Union canal, trying and failing to adequately describe what I could see, to a friend who couldn’t. This was Dave Heeley, ultra-runner, who in 2008 became the first blind person to run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. Today we were walking rather than running – which, with me guiding him, was just as well. I had guided a blind adventurer once before when I took part in the television series Pilgrimage. One of my fellow pilgrims was the remarkable Amar Latif. We were high up on the side of a deep, lush valley in eastern Serbia. I was focused on the trickiness of the path itself, but Amar kept asking me to describe the vista. I looked down that valley at the mountains in the distance and simply didn’t know how or where to start. I had a bash, as there was plainly plenty of material to work with, but didn’t feel I had done justice to the richness of that scene. Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading…

My mother, Pearl Roberts, who has died aged 100, was an early volunteer with the Paralympic Games and a campaigner against nuclear testing; she was also a keen amateur performer with a fine singing voice. The pinnacle of her life on stage was playing the leading role of Anna in the King and I with Wells Operatic Society, Somerset, in 1976. It was no small performance, filling the Regal cinema for five nights. “Her personality is infectious and her singing is the highlight of the show,” said one review. Continue reading…

From the start of his music festival work, Vince Power asked people on guest lists to donate £5 for charity. This enabled him to support housing associations in north London; Solas Anois, a refuge in north London for Irish women and children experiencing domestic violence; the Aisling Return to Ireland project, for the benefit of elderly Irish people; the Irish Centre in Camden, north London; and the Terrence Higgins Trust. Looking further afield, he also helped Amnesty international; Cradle, supplying food, medicines and later housing and schools in response to the Bosnian war of the 1990s; and mental health support in refugee camps in Thailand and Europe after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. Continue reading…

Largest trainer of dogs in country is trying to prevent an estimated £20m funding gap opening up by 2026. Guide Dogs UK, the largest trainer of dogs in the country, is to make about 160 people redundant – around 9% of its workforce – to prevent an estimated £20m funding gap opening up by 2026. The charity blamed Covid and the cost of living crisis: veterinary bills have increased by almost 20% and pet food bills by 12% since 2023, with further increases expected. Continue reading…

Exclusive: Working-class people less likely to get jobs in charities than public and private sectors, EY Foundation report finds Charities are hiring staff with “privilege rather than potential”, according to the author of a report highlighting the stark class divide in the sector. Working-class people are less likely to be hired by charities than by employers in the public and private sectors, said the EY Foundation, which supports young people from low-income backgrounds to progress in professional roles. Continue reading…