The Reader Service was represented by Stephen Harrison, Jeff Bashton, Malcolm and Terry Calvert at Milton Keynes Community Foundation’s Charity Car Raffle Draw on Sunday 25 February.

 Reader Service sold almost 1,000 tickets out of a total of around 22,000 and we will receive a proportion of the ticket sales. The draw, which was attended by the local community groups which volunteered to sell the tickets, took place at Planet Ice during the MK Lightning’s ice hockey match with Coventry Blaze.

The winning ticket was sold by the Friends of Willen Hospice.

We were fortunate that Malcolm, who has spent many years in hockey mad Canada, was with us to explain some of the finer points of the game, though this did not have to cover the tactic of punching your opponent’s lights out, which we grasped quite quickly. Sadly, Lightning could not complete the success of the evening, going down 8-5.

Terry Calvert, March 2018

In January a team representing the MK Reader Service travelled to snowy Glasgow to take part in the BBC quiz show, “Eggheads”. Paula Suchy, Stephen Harrison, Jeff Bashton, Nana Frempong, Alison Statham and Terry Calvert made up the team which took on the quiz experts in a bid to win money for the service.

We were well looked after by the production team there. The wardrobe staff selected the outfits they wanted us to wear and the team was sent to makeup. The ladies required very little assistance, but Jeff did insist on his favourite brands of foundation and moisturiser!

Then it was off to the studio. It takes about two hours in all, with all the breaks to change the team members in the question room, but everyone agreed that the time flew by. Jeremy Vine and the Eggheads team were a pleasure to meet. Jeremy even took time during breaks in filming to chat and take selfies with the team!

We were told that our episode will be aired later in the year and we will publicise the date, when known, so that you can see how we got on. Until then, we are only allowed to say that we had a lovely time there and it proved to be a great experience.

An added bonus on the trip was that we discovered deep fried Mars bars really are available in Glasgow chip shops. As if things couldn’t get better, Stephen discovered that his favourite tipple, Irn Bru, is now available in a diet version! Who would have thought it?

Terry Calvert

Our fabulous bucket shakers were out in Dobbies Garden Centre in Bletchley last weekend.  Thank you to them for their time and effort on quite a chilly assignment.

A valuable £276.00 was raised!

Great job everyone and thank you to Dobbies,  their generous customers and of course, Paula Varey for coordinating  everything.

Have you ever had any dealings with the Reader Service, either as a Volunteer or Service User?  Over the course of our 30 years we have met some amazing people who we are eager to thank for contributing to the success of our service.

We are keen to hear from old friends and colleagues in this, our 30th birthday year.  We would like to invite as many of you as possible to our birthday tea in October and would therefore be delighted if you would renew contact with us.

Please call the office or drop us an email and we will happily add you to our guest list.  We  really hope to see you all again soon.

On the first Monday of each month, we are delighted that Marcia Gleeson organises a coffee morning at the Shenley Wood Residential Village for Visually Impaired Residents (VIPs).

This month our very own Paula Suchy gave a talk to 12 residents about her experiences.  The assembled folk had lots of questions about gadgets and services and were especially taken with her Victor Reader Daisy (which stands for Digital Accessible Information System)  There was also a very useful discussion about the value of good lighting.  MKRS leaflets were made available as well as some information on other useful clubs and organisations.

If you are interested in attending any future events, please contact the MKRS office on 01908 231123 and Marcia will add you to her invitation list.