Noeline is 'Planning to Remember'

A blind veteran ‘raised on Remembrance’, wants to ensure the fallen are not forgotten by planning activities to bring her community together to remember.

Remembrance is an important time of the year for veterans, serving personnel and their families. Noeline, 74 and from Mid Glamorgan, is hosting a Remembrance lunch at her local church and a Remembrance get together for her fellow local blind veterans in Cardiff.

Noeline’s earliest memories of Remembrance were attending the parade in her pushchair as a very young child and then taking part in parades as a brownie. She says:

“My grandfather’s four older brothers all fought in the First World War but three never came home. Their names are on the war memorial in my hometown. The fourth brother died after returning from the war because of injuries caused to his lungs from mustard gas, there is a plaque for him in our local church."

In addition to the events which Noeline is planning, she has also been busy knitting poppies that will be available in exchange for donations and is creating a special poppy cushion which will be raffled off at one of her events to help her raise money for our charity. Noeline will also be laying a wreath on behalf of our charity at her local Remembrance event. She says:

“Remembrance became even more significant to me following my own service in the Women’s Royal Army Corps.

“Since becoming a blind veteran, I have been proud to lay a wreath on behalf of the charity at my local Remembrance Day commemoration. This gives me an opportunity to remember, thank those dear to me and recognise the support Blind Veterans UK has given to veterans like myself.”

Sight loss

It was in 2008 that Noeline first noticed something was wrong with her eyesight. She says:

“Blindness took away my independence. I had to learn to ask for help and that wasn’t in my nature. I was the person that helped others and now I needed help. Only once I accepted that, was I was able to move forwards.

“I’m a positive person and I told myself – Noeline, you can’t be cured but you need to pull your socks up and count your blessings for what you can still do.”

Our support

Noeline began being supported by our charity at the start of 2020 and by July had already become involved in several of our online chat groups that were set up during the Covid pandemic. She says:

“Before joining Blind Veterans UK I hadn’t knitted for years due to my sight loss. I joined the knitting chat group and a lady there, who has no sight at all, told me how she still knits, and I was encouraged to give it a go. I started off by knitting a simple square and there were no holes in it.

“I have been provided with talking scales so that I am able to keep cooking, a magnifier on a clamp so I’m able to carry on with my card making hobby and I am now in the 21st Century and have a mobile phone I can use."