Working Age Rehabilitation Program

Sight-loss can leave veterans feeling alone, scared and dependent on others. Our Working-Age Rehabilitation Program supports and rehabilitates blind veterans to help them live independently. 

Over the course of five-days, our veterans of working age are supported to develop vital independent living skills which will hopefully lead to them accessing, obtaining and remaining in employment. But the course is not just about employment, veterans are also encouraged and supported to set personal goals and revisit past hobbies or explore new ones.

Each veteran is different; their sight-loss journey is unique and through a series of group and one-to-one sessions and presentations they are helped to achieve their goals.

Seventy-seven of our veterans have been supported specifically through our Working-Age Rehabilitation Program over the last 12 months.

Some of those who have recently been on the course and continue to be supported have spoken to us about what the course has meant for them:

Jill

I've been on the course myself and due to the confidence it gave me, I’m now doing an apprenticeship with the charity supporting the Working Age Members group and the running of the Working-Age Rehabilitation Program. I get to see for myself the huge difference in the veterans by the end of the week.

The course isn’t all about getting back into work, each veteran is treated as an individual and for some it is about building their confidence and increasing their independence by setting goals to revisit an old hobby, that they thought was now not possible due to sight loss, or to start a completely new one. Sometimes this step is vital before a veteran can feel ready to start on the journey back into employment. 

For me the charity is not just an organisation that talks about things, they get results and it’s a privilege to be a part of that.

I’m an ex-nurse; I served for four years in the Army with the Queen Alexandra Nursing Corps and continued my nursing career after I was discharged. Nursing is such a meaningful role and I felt guilty when I was no longer in paid employment. I wanted to be able to support myself but also to feel a part of something and to be useful. 

The staff at Blind Veterans UK support with practical tools such as a laptop with special software and access to relevant learning courses but more than that the staff are there to listen but without interfering. Their support, and that of my fellow blind veterans, enables and empowers.

Wayne

In 2022, I was diagnosed with the degenerative eye condition, retinitis pigmentosa. My life changed completely. I’d walked into the consultant’s office as an independent man and walked out knowing my life was going to change. I was in tears, my life turned upside down, not knowing how to digest what I’d just been told. I just didn’t understand the disease or how I would go forward.

Thankfully I discovered Blind Veterans UK and was welcomed into the Working Age Members Group. In the short time I’ve been supported by the charity, I’ve received rehabilitation, advice and equipment that have helped me to get back into running, playing my guitar and completing everyday activities that I took for granted before. 

On my recent rehabilitation course, I was asked to share some of the things I’d like to achieve that seemed out of reach to me because of my sight loss. I shared my dream of taking part in the London Marathon.

I was supported to train and prepare for the Worthing 10km in May, with a view to being able to take part in the London Marathon alongside other blind veterans in 2026. The staff could see how running was giving me back my confidence and allowing me to feel like the person I was before sight loss. 

Rob

I served in the Army with the 9th/12th Royal Lancers for 25 years having joined at 16 straight from school. It was after I had already left that I noticed something wrong with my sight.

I was 49-years-old at the time, I walked into the hospital on the advice of the chemist and was told there and then that my optic nerve was dying and I could lose all my sight in my right eye at any time and my left eye was also at risk.

I was at the low vision clinic when the doctor asked what I could see; I described it as looking through the driver’s vision port on a tank. The doctor then asked if I had been in the Army and said I was lucky. She gave me the details for the charity and I’ve never looked back.

It’s not a case of not being able to do something because I’m blind. Companies are not employing me for my eyesight, they are employing me for my brain. By having me in the workforce, I can look at problems differently to someone who has sight and with that often comes different solutions.

Specsavers

Specsavers has recently given the program a boost with additional funding. Senior PR Manager from Specsavers, Marc, says:

“Specsavers is committed to changing lives through better sight and hearing and has partnered with Blind Veterans UK for over ten years.”

“We’re proud to support their Working Age Rehabilitation Program, in order to help veterans overcome some of the challenges they face with sight loss.”