Fifty Years Of Listening For Lilian

Dec. 7, 2009 - PRLog -- Wirral pensioner Lilian Birchall is celebrating more than 50 years of listening to her favourite shows on specially designed radio sets for blind and partially sighted people.

The 81-year-old has been a recipient of five of the British Wireless for the Blind’s (BWBF) radio sets since the 1950s, when she and her late husband Dave were first given the charity’s Roberts R55 model.

“They’ve given me more than 50 years of listening pleasure,” said Lilian. “Regular sets can be really frustrating to use when you are unable to see the dial properly.

“The BWBF’s radios have all been designed so they are really easy for visually impaired people to use. My set helps give me much more independence and is a real companion to me.”

Currently Lilian uses one of the BWBF’s “Symphony” radio and CD/cassette players. It has large controls with tactile marking and is in high contrast black and yellow for those with residual sight.

“I usually listen to BBC Radio 4, who put on some marvellous plays, and I’m a big fan of the Archers most days. And I regularly tune in to BBC Radio Merseyside to catch up on all the local news,” she added.

“The set also means I can listen to Wirral Talking Newspaper on the Symphony’s cassette recorder.”

Lilian, who uses a white stick to help her get about, was born with cataracts and has been registered blind since 1947.

She started work at the former Workshops for the Blind in Cornwallis Street, Liverpool, in 1953, where she met her husband. Lilian made small brushes and husband Dave road sweeping brushes.

“Dave’s job was particularly dangerous as his job involved sitting around a cauldron of boiling pitch and dipping the broom’s bristles into the liquid and then feeding them into sockets drilled into the broom head,” added Lilian.

“You could get very bad burns. It was hard, but we were so glad to be able to go out to work and earn a living like anyone else.”

The couple both retired in 1980 after 27 years. Sadly Dave passed away in 1990 after suffering a heart attack.

Lilian is able to look back on 28 years of marriage by listening to Dave’s audio “photographs” of the pair’s life together on cassette, this includes the couple’s wedding in Liverpool in 1961.

“Because neither of us were able to see pictures, Dave thought he’d do the next best thing and make what he called “sound pictures” of the important events in our lives.

“I’ve got some wonderful recordings of the holidays we took together in Blackpool and Scarborough. My favourite was when we went around the grounds of Balmoral in Scotland.

“They’re a wonderful memory of our time together.”

The BWBF provides specially adapted DAB/FM radio and CD players and voice-controlled internet radio sets for blind and partially sighted people in need on free permanent loan.

This year the charity is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the official launch of the fund by Winston Churchill on Christmas Day 1929.

He marked the event with a live appeal from his home in Chartwell, Kent, with an impassioned appeal for money to buy wireless sets.

In those days a reliable radio cost just £2 and fund volunteers would visit each recipient once a week to collect their radio batteries for recharging.

To find out more, or to support the work of the British Wireless for the Blind Fund, visit: http://www.blind.org.uk or call 01622 754757.

ENDS

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To find out more, or to support the work of the British Wireless for the Blind Fund, visit: www.blind.org.uk or call 01622 754757.