The difference the Sightline service makes to me is priceless really. I would feel down in the dumps if my calls with Maggie didn’t happen. They say time flies when you’re having fun, and it certainly does for our calls…
I really feel my calls with Mike help him massively. He is out of work just now and in his late thirties like me. I offer him my advice on how I gained employment and told him how explaining what steps my employer can take to make role accessible for me; has been mutually beneficial…
I have been chatting with Kate for 12 months now and I really don’t know what I’d do if we didn’t have our weekly calls. I class her as my closest friend now even though I’ve never met her in person and know I never will. I’m 81 and a lot of my friends have passed away now sadly…
My Sightline befriender is lovely, and we are approaching our 3-year befriending anniversary in August! We chat about what we’ve been up to each week. She’ll always ask me what theatre show I’ve been to and if I enjoyed it…
Volunteering with Sightline has massively impacted my life for the better. I lost my job due to illness and needed to continue giving back so that’s when I decided to volunteer as a telephone befriender. It has given me hope back that I had lost. I look forward to my phone calls and organise things around when they take place; I hate to miss them…..
When he was 7 years old, he lost sight in one of his eyes. As he grew up, he went to a mainstream school and was bullied a lot. He was told by teachers that he wouldn’t amount to anything and this understandably affected him a lot…
I chose to volunteer having seen an advert in my place of work, and I had been looking to take on something for me, whereby I could make a difference to someone else as well hoping I would enjoy the experience too…
I first realised something was wrong when I couldn’t see the colours when I was painting. At age 45 my vision was almost perfect so developing an eye condition was something I had to get used to as my sight deteriorated rapidly. I can see several shadows at once which move around a lot, it’s quite disorientating!
I joined Sightline as a Volunteer Telephone Befriender just over six months ago. I am now retired from nursing and was looking for a volunteering role that I could use some of the skills I have gained over the years. More importantly, as I now live on my own, I can understand how people with limited or no sight can become very isolated without interaction with other people…
Paul seems to have many issues and has overwhelming feelings of isolation and loneliness which can sometimes be difficult to hear. I try to take heart that I am providing him with some much-needed friendship and support, albeit from a distance…
