North Cadbury Court has chosen Somerset Sight as its local charity to support this year. The Taunton based organisation provides services, training and leisure activities which help maintain independence and improve the quality of life of anyone who is affected by sight loss.
Cath Lynn-Jones of Somerset Sight said: “We are absolutely over the moon to learn that North Cadbury Court has chosen Somerset Sight as its Charity of the Year! We had a fabulous time at the ‘Dining in the Dark’ fundraiser that they hosted for us last July. To now be chosen as their Charity of the Year is the icing on the cake!”
Dining in the Dark is a unique experience, where people eat whilst blindfolded, enabling participants to experience for themselves what it’s like to live as a blind or partially sighted person. The Court will host the three course meal again this year to help raise awareness and show guests how reliant they are on their sight for everyday tasks such as eating and drinking – to giving them an inkling of what it’s really like for somebody with no sight at all.
North Cadbury Court’s owner, Janet Montgomery, said: “Every year we support a local charity and included in this fund raising is an initiative whereby we ask guests to donate the cost of returning items they have accidentally left behind at the house. We host a lot of events so, as you can imagine, we get quite a lot of lost property! This is a lovely way to help a worthy cause, which we hope our guests appreciate too.
“We have chosen Somerset Sight this year as we were so impressed with their Dining in the Dark dinner, which was hosted at the Court in 2022. It was a chance to see the incredible work the charity is doing to help those who have lost their sight, to maintain their independence and improve their quality of life.”
Somerset Sight provides support to more than 3,000 people living in Somerset who are partially sighted or blind. It runs a mobile advisory service, with specialist items to purchase or try out, which visits towns and villages across the county to provide support to those unable to travel to the headquarters in Taunton. It runs free ‘Seeing Life Differently’ course for those recently diagnosed and a volunteer visiting service providing each sight impaired person with their own unique volunteer to help with correspondence, socialising, making appointments and trips out.
Somerset Sight always needs volunteers, please contact them on 01823 333818 if you can help.
