Chris Stanley

Chris Stanley’s first involvement with Vision Norfolk was in 2009, when as president of the Great Yarmouth Lions Club, he presented a cheque to the charity. Also as part of his Lions presidential year, he organised an event for World Sight Day in the town, which saw various MPs following a course while wearing blindfolds.

Six years later, on his retirement, Chris started volunteering with the charity. Initially he got involved with the monthly pleasure walks, as well as craft sessions and coffee mornings at the Great Yarmouth hub.

It was after meeting eye clinic liaison officer Rosie Knell that Chris started helping out at the eye clinic at the James Paget Hospital, where he spends every Tuesday morning in a varied role which ranges from keeping the leaflet stations stocked with the latest information to liaising with the community support worker and simply chatting to patients.

He also is a reader for Grapevine, Great Yarmouth’s talking newspaper.

“If anyone is looking for a role with a local organisation, I would highly recommend Vision Norfolk,” he says. “I have found all blind and visually-impaired people I deal with to be extremely grateful for whatever you do for them. They are such lovely people; I never hear them complain about their sight loss, they just get on with it.”