The Sight Centre

New premises

Without Malabar House providing a focal point for the Association’s activities, they needed a new base. The charity’s Honorary Secretary at that time, Rev John Pearce, was also the Secretary of the Cornwall Rural Community Charity (CRCC) and because of this the two charities were able to share premises for several years. In fact, it wasn’t until the late 1980s that the charity began looking for a new home.

Going places

Gloria Alsey, a magistrate well known for her charity work, took over the reins from John Pearce in 1978. Gloria wanted to make sure that a wider number of people across the county could access the charity’s services, so in 1989 the Association launched a mobile information service. They converted an old bus into an accessible information centre which travelled around the county providing information about magnifiers, desktop readers and daily living aids. The service was run by volunteers and proved to be a huge success, only coming to an end when the bus was no longer road worthy!

The Sight Centre

With the success of the mobile information service, the charity began to explore options for setting up a permanent base from which to deliver these services. At first it was suggested to have two bases, one in the east of the county and one in the west, but unfortunately resources wouldn’t stretch to this. After assessing all the options it was decided to purchase Penryn House on Newham Road in Truro as a central hub. The building, previously owned by Penryn Granite, needed a new name and it was initially suggested that it should be called the BLINK (Blind in Kernow) Centre. This suggestion didn’t take off so instead, on 23 June 1994, The Sight Centre was opened.

Grand opening

Cornwall’s first Sight Centre was a big milestone for the charity and therefore needed a big occasion to mark the event. Her Royal Highness, the Princess Royal was invited to officially open the centre and unveiled a plaque which is still on display outside the building today. Princess Anne was given a tour of the building and shown some of the equipment that helped blind and partially sighted people in their daily lives.

New services

With a permanent base established, the Association was able to provide a whole new range of services for blind and partially sighted people. The new centre featured an equipment room to demonstrate different aids that could help with everyday living such as talking clocks, liquid level indicators and Bumpons. Many of these items were now available to purchase from the Sight Centre too. A computer room was set up on the top floor to provide computer training for blind and partially sighted people in the county for the first time. This volunteer-led service was so successful that a new assistive technology department was formed and volunteer, Alison Jane, was employed as the charity’s first assistive technology officer.

Another major milestone for the charity was the introduction of Cornwall’s first, and still the only, low vision service at a time when low vision was a relatively new concept nationally. It was made possible by the charity’s vice-chair at the time, Juanita Reynolds. Jaunita was an optometrist who founded Reynolds Opticians in Penzance with her husband, and later became chair of the charity. Juanita worked with the local health authority to secure the funding for the service and set up weekly clinics at the Sight Centre for people whose sight condition could not be improved with prescription glasses or surgery.

Present day

We continue to deliver our low vision and assistive technology services from the Sight Centre in Newham Road as well as other services offering benefits advice, help with registration, emotional support and social activities. In addition, the shop area has doubled in size.

Today we help, on average, 4,000 blind and partially sighted people per year to get the help and support they need.