Claire’s Story 

Since the international convention in 1925, we accepted the challenge from Helen Keller to become “The knights of the blind, in the crusade against darkness”. Shortly after that we invented ‘the white stick’, a simple but incredibly effective tool for people who are either blind or visually impaired.

Since then mostly through the success of “campaign sight first” and “campaign Sight first 2” we have funded and carried out 4.5 million cataract operations worldwide, we have actually succeeded in preventing ‘river blindness’ in South America and saved the sight of approximately 27 million people worldwide.

It therefore seemed very appropriate that I should accept the opportunity of a challenge that came my way. Recently a colleague drew my attention to a local girl who was blind and needed a computer with voice activation software so that she could complete her homework successfully.

The story that follows concerns a very remarkable young lady who will be known from now on as Claire. Claire is not her actual name. I have changed this to protect her identity.

Claire is a local girl who is blind. She has been blind all of her life, but when I met her I was impressed by the fact that she shows intelligence and has a determination to succeed that is way beyond her eight years.

She lives with her mother, who although she is a single parent, is not entitled to assistance from the local government because she works full time. She lives not far from the Kings Norton area of Birmingham, which is where I actually work.

I knew from my colleague that the family were pursuing the option of purchasing a Braille net book for Claire. This is something that would be very expensive, so they would appreciate the opportunity of outside help.

Through my colleague I arranged to meet one of her family, and it was arranged that I should meet Claire’s grandfather. Before the initial meeting, I made a couple of enquiries. I had heard of some computer software called ‘jaws’ that was designed to assist blind people. It was suggested by several people that I knew to contact MR Jim Rowley (a former district Governor of this district, who is also blind).

I called Jim and explained the situation. He explained all about jaws to me and even gave me a demonstration over the telephone on his own computer. He then suggested that I should do two things. One was to contact a company called ‘Sight & Sound’ that he knew of and had dealt with and the second was to contact John Barnes of Moseley King’s Heath Lions.

When I made contact with ‘sight & sound, I was very impressed. I knew more or less what I wanted after speaking to Jim Rowley, but they offered me a package straight away that was ideal. The deal was for a net book with the Adult version of jaws (there was a children’s version of jaws called ‘Dolphin’, but this would not be appropriate because she would soon grow out of it). With both guaranteed for three years. The cost of this would be £949.00.

After a successful meeting with Claire’s grandfather where I explained the package available, I met Claire and her mother. As I explained earlier, she showed a maturity, intelligence and determination way beyond her eight years. The family discussed how they could raise the necessary funds for a computer that was a fraction of the cost that they originally expected... However, I managed to persuade them to allow me to complete the task.

John Barnes and I arranged to meet and we planned a themed party night. I suggested that we should call it a ‘bad taste party’. This would mean that I could wear my normal clothes and not feel uncomfortable or out of place.

I also contacted Margaret Hendy of Northfield Kings Norton, who also agreed to help.

I managed to arrange a function room at my local works social club and a Disc Jockey, free of charge for a Friday evening and we raised £700 on the night. Further donations of £100 from Claire’s family, £100 from one of my colleagues and £100 from Moseley Kings Heath lions and we had enough money for the computer.

I spoke to ‘sight & Sound again and they agreed to deliver the computer, set it up and give Claire two hours tuition on how to use the computer and also how to ‘touch type’ Claire’s mother was quite overwhelmed. Not only could Claire now do what any other child could do on her computer, but also to be able to touch type was a skill that benefits Claire not just to do schoolwork but also later in life. The ‘dinosaur’ of a Braille machine supplied by the local education authority (something of a bygone age), could now be sent back.

Meeting the lady from sight & sound who was also blind, but a skilled professional gave her the hope that one day her own child would be able to have a successful career.

It is worth mentioning at this point that this company were absolutely brilliant. They agreed to liase with the family from day one answering all their questions, were very patient and flexible when Claire’s mother had problems trying to arrange a day when she could pull Claire out of School and arrange a day off work, they actually delivered it a week before they received the cheque and even spent an extra hour with Claire teaching her to ‘touch type’ something that they did not have to do.

Making all the arrangements with the family directly made life a so much easier for me.

(Blind people can learn to ‘touch type’ on a modern standard key board, because the F, J and the number 5, keys have a raised surface. Blind people can then memorise the surrounding keys and using the three keys with raised profiles, they know where all the other keys are on the keyboard).

I believe that an article in the local and even the national magazine would be of enormous benefit to other clubs, who may have been faced with a similar situation.

The story may not end here. Firstly in effect, four Lions clubs came together to change the life for the better for a very unique little girl. Something that I think we can build on for the future.

There are dozens of little girls and boys in a very similar situation to Claire, who are just waiting for a little helping hand. Could you imagine if every club in the country had a similar story to tell? The best part of it is, once we had done the groundwork, the rest of it was easy.

I hope that you are able to use this as a groundsheet, to go out looking for ‘Claire’ in your district.

Trevor Curtis
Coventry Leofric