ON Thursday 11th January 2024 Immediate Past President Keith Mates of Uckfield Lions presented £1000 cheque to Wealden Talking News.
The President of Uckfield Lions has £1000 allocated to donate to a local cause. Keith chose Wealden Talking News as his charity of choice.
WTN is a memory stick with all the local news from around the county which is sent out to partially sighted and blind people from offices in Heathfield, the memory stick which is produced weekly is then put into speaker for members to listen to, the speaker and memory sticks are provided free of charge, with the news readers all giving their time for free.
The talking newspaper was first produced in East Sussex in 1975 under the name of Heathfield and District talking newspaper, with a start-up grant of £1500 to buy basic equipment from Lions club around the area, this inspired Lions club member Ted Davis to move the project forward, initially in the form of a cassette.
For many years now after the closure of Heathfield lions, Uckfield lions club has been supporting this very worthwhile cause ,and this has contributed to WTN receiving the Queens award for voluntary service in June 2022 ,with award being presented by Andrew Blackman Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex.
Quote from Chairperson of WTN Alan Cook ,This is a substantial sum for WTN to receive from Uckfield Lions Club, who have been a major partner in all that we have done over the years. It is without doubt only through their, and others, supporting us that we are able to continue offering such a broad recording base and enabling visually impaired listeners across Wealden to remain up to date with interesting articles. WTN remains very grateful to the Uckfield Lions .
If you know someone that would benefit from this service, please see www.wealdentalkingnews.org.uk or call 01435 862304
