FOR more than four years the Crediton Talking Newspaper, read from stories published in the “Crediton Courier”, has been published weekly and dispatched to listeners who are blind or partially sighted on the day of publication.

The Lions Club of Crediton and friends have undertaken this work up until the present crisis, only missing one week, which was due to the weather.

Each Thursday several readers and technicians have got together to make sure this happened, unfortunately most were in the category that needed to stay at home and that was exacerbated by the lockdown that subsequently followed.

Keeping in touch is particularly important for the visually impaired who often have no other window on the world and many listeners have commented that having the local talking News is like a friend dropping in.

The Lions Club and the Talking News couldn’t allow this to stop so Crediton Lions’ President Peter Bryan, with the help of Lion Karen Todd, sought means of continuing the service, albeit slightly delayed.

Recording and copying equipment were relocated from the regular studio and publication of the recorded information recommenced after less than a two week gap.

All this would not be possible without the co-operation of the Royal Mail who collect the pouches for onward transmission to our listeners, now numbering almost 60.

In addition to the recording of the “Crediton Courier”, Crediton Lions include a range of downloaded magazines from RNIB newsagents, articles of interest to the partially sighted from Infosound and BBC In touch.

If there are any visually impaired readers anyone may know of or care for who could benefit from this service, please telephone Lion Eric Parkes on 01363 82878. He would love to hear from anyone.