Building bonds in the wood shop

Blind veteran Kevin from Cheshire first tried his hand at woodworking while a schoolboy but never had another opportunity until he came to stay at our centre decades later.

He says: “Lee in arts and crafts took me over to the lathe and it all came back to me, it was pretty much the same as the one I had used at school."

From there Kevin built a real passion for woodworking and honed his skills during visits to our centre. He says: “Lee was brilliant, he even found me an old lathe in the basement which I took home with me. He really built up my confidence and taught me that as long as everything is set up safely and there’s good lighting, there’s nothing I can’t do. I owe so much to Lee and I’ll always be grateful for everything he did for me.”

Kevin started by making bowls before moving onto candle stick holders, tea light holders, card holders and many more. He says: “I started taking items to veterans’ get togethers and to my surprise people wanted to buy them. I was then even asked to make a bowl for HRH The Dutchess of Edinburgh which was presented to her at the opening of the Rustington Centre in 2024.

Kevin joined the Army at 18 and spent one year with the infantry before being medically discharged because of his eyesight. He says: “I was on the range and it was a bit blurry so I thought I should get it checked out. It turned out it was retinitis pigmentosa. My sight has been in gradual decline ever since and I’d describe it now as like walking through fog.”

Earlier this year Kevin’s Support Worker Lily asked Kevin to get in touch with new Member Brian Thorpe and welcome him to the charity. Kevin says: “We hit it off straight away as we are both into woodworking. I think our conversation got him back into it as the next time I spoke to him he’d ordered some new equipment.”

Since then Kevin and Brian’s friendship has blossomed and they’ve spent time in the workshop together and Brian even framed Kevin’s Founders Award for creativity for him. Kevin says: “What a feeling it was to receive that award. It was so lovely. My wife nearly fell of her chair. And it was so nice of Brian to frame it for me.”