By Ailsa Young, Bradley Stoke Lions.
To celebrate 50 years of service, Brunel Lions, the parent club of Bradley Stoke Lions, walked the Clifton Suspension Bridge 50 times recently. One of our members was dressed as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the designer of the bridge and this fascinated many of the children. We met some lovely people on our way and did hope that we might even encourage someone to want to join the Lions. We are always looking for new members and people who might like to become Friends of Lions to help us at events.
The Lions are great recyclers, particularly of spectacles which we send off to India, Africa, the Philippines and Nepal, to name just a few, to give the joy of sight to young and old. So seek out your old glasses and put them in the boxes in your local opticians, who will pass them on to the Lions for redistribution. Helen Keller, an American lady born in 1880, who at the age of 19 months became deaf and blind as a result of an unknown illness, became an inspirational lecturer and an advocate for the blind and deaf. Before her death in 1968 she tasked the members of Lions Clubs to become Knights of the Blind and ever since, the Lions have made sight one of their main programmes. The Lions’ SightFirst programme funds the efforts of Lions and others to fight the major causes of preventable and reversible blindness and provide services to persons who are blind or have a visual impairment. Since this programme began in 1990, SightFirst has helped save the sight of more than 30 million people worldwide.
The Lions Club recently donated a quantity of old British and foreign coins to Margaret Nash, chair of the Friends of Carers Support Centre, to support their fundraising efforts. One of the two young carers who were helping to look after the garden, a refuge for young carers in the Vassall Centre, took this photo of Duncan, Margaret and myself.
For more information on the Lions please contact Ailsa Young on ambyoung29@yahoo.com or phone 07737 106836.
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This article originally appeared in the September 2021 issue of the Bradley Stoke Journal magazine (on page 17). The magazine is delivered FREE, nine times a year, to ALL 8,700 homes in Bradley Stoke. Phone 01454 300 400 to enquire about advertising or leaflet insertion.
