You're listening to a Community Story from Be My Eyes.


My name is John Gardener, and I would like to thank Be My Eyes for the opportunity of sharing my experience with the excellent service they provide for blind and partially-sighted people. I am a blind person with the eye condition retinitis pigmentosa, and I was brought up in Birmingham in the UK. My first signs of having poor sight was night blindness. However, I did go to a mainstream school, but as I got older, my eyesight deteriorated and my field vision narrowed. Sunlight as well was also a big issue for me. So, I was starting to have trouble when I went to work, and I worked in a factory. And when I was in my late 30s, I went to move to Blackpool which is a famous seaside resort in England and joined Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Society for the Blind, where I am to this day, and I am now 63 years age. My job entails talking newspapers, where local volunteers come in to the studio, read from local magazines, and we send it out in a format to our blind listeners all over the UK.


I first found out about to Be My Eyes approximately three years ago. Because I'm in the blind world, we get talking round tables and functions and exhibitions and around a pint a bit as you would. And one of the people said to me, "Have you ever tried Be My Eyes, the app?" And I said, "No, I haven't." And he says, "It's absolutely excellent, where the volunteer takes over your iPhone to view different tasks you require of the volunteer such as sell by dates, cooking instructions, finding out different settings on your cookers or fridge or such like." And I thought, "Well, I'll give this a go", which I have done. Now, as you know, the whole world has been taken over by this horrible virus, and of course lockdowns have occurred in most places.


And as I live alone, I live in a flat, obviously I couldn't have sighted people come into my flat to help me with day-to-day tasks. And last year, unfortunately, late November, my best friend, who also was visually impaired, for 30 years I was his best friend and he had a funeral service. Now I was unable to attend, it was not allowed to go from place to place in the UK, and he did live about 100 miles away. So I was desperate to actually listen to his service. So whilst I was at work, I had my iPhone and one of my colleagues said to me, "John, would you like us to set it up for you?" But unfortunately my iPhone was not compatible to the funeral service.


Which meant I had to go on my own PC at home where I could have nobody come into my flat to assist me. It was not a very visually impaired-friendly website, and I was struggling to navigate around the website and even find where I have to log in. Now, the service was 11 o'clock in the morning and it was about 20 to 11, and I thought of Be My Eyes. I contacted the nearest volunteer, and a gentleman came on and he also, at first, couldn't see where the log in box was, but that was my own fault because I had the magnification on my video magnifier far too high. However, I minimized it and then he located where I had to put my login. I also then have to put the numbers in which I did do, and then we got into the funeral service with about four minutes to go.


I found out later that when I did contact the funeral service, that if I would have to pay for a copy of that funeral service, it would have cost me about 65 pounds. So it saved me lots of money that guy. So I was very pleased and I was delighted with the service, Be My Eyes supplied for me that day and continue to do so. I am in touch with a lot of blind people, as I mentioned earlier, and I have told them of all the different ideas that they would like to have Be My Eyes that some of them says they also like the additional side of it, where you've got professional help as well. And that seems to be very, very popular as well.


Other blind people who are thinking of using Be My Eyes, I would suggest to give it a try, because I find it excellent. Don't get nervous when speaking to somebody who you don't know, the volunteers who I've used every time have been absolutely excellent. And I also had a humorous lady as well, because I've wanted to see the settings on my fridge freezer. I just bought a new fridge freezer and I said to the lady after she told me the sell by dates on a few products, I said, "Could you tell me what the setting is in the fridge freezer? I'll take you into the fridge freezer." And she said to me, she says, "Well, just give me a minute while I put my coat on." Which I find quite humorous really. So you can have a laugh, but be aware that be as brief as you possibly can.


And I'd love to just give a message to the volunteers themselves, is that when people have asked me, "What is it like being blind?" Well, it's tough. It's very tough. And we do need help, and the more help we need life is far more easier and better to cope with life. And when volunteers are willing to give up their time to help you with some of the simplest tasks it helps so much. So I'll reach out for other blind people to give them a try. I find using Be My Eyes gives you independence, because as I live alone in a flat, and of course with the lockdown that we're currently having, I don't need to knock on other people's doors, next door volunteers to come and help and assist me.


And of course, because they can't come in my building and all that, I'm finding that I'm having to use Be My Eyes more and more which I really enjoy. And I've got to know some of the volunteers and as I said they are very, very helpful. And it gives you that independence, which really is so important with people with sight problems. And again, I'm always in your debt regarding the funeral service of my good friend, because without that I would have actually, wasn't able to listen to the service and I enjoyed it that much. It was something I will certainly use again. And it gives me extra scope to think of all the different other things Be My Eyes would be able to do for you other than, as I said earlier, about the basic tasks such as... Which are very important is the sell by dates and the looking for settings and reading cooking instructions.


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