News

Lucky Thirteenth - We Win the Lottery - 06 Feb 2004

On the thirteenth attempt Cue And Review Recording Service is today able to announce that it has been awarded a grant of 48,165 pounds from the Community Fund.

The grant will enable the Scottish based charity:

*to employ a Studio Supervisor for the next year,

*purchase much needed new cassette copying and erasing equipment,

*purchase new software to manage membership How to Subscribe

*and ensure that the team of 60 volunteers receive adequate support and supervision.

Speaking today Managing Editor and Founder Alastair McPhee said, "with March 2004 seeing the twenty first anniversary of the production of our first tape I am delighted that the efforts of the sixty volunteers and the two members of staff have now finally borne fruit. I now hope that the announcement of this award will galvanise support from national and local organisations who are interested in knowing about the range of services that we provide for blind people."

With 1 in 25 of the population visually impaired Alastair and his team are keen to encourage newspapers and magazines to regularly promote the fact that volunteer teams throughout the country record print titles. Cue and Review Recording Service presently record some twenty print titles ranging from The Herald newspaper through the Radio Times and More Magazine to SFX for science fiction fans. Alastair is however surprised at the lack of awareness of his service amongst groups for the blind and even amongst Social Workers who are in regular contact with blind and partially sighted people. Cue and Review Recording Service are therefore keen to use the Community Fund award to encourage journalists and colleagues within the visually impaired world to get in touch with the group and the 60 independent groups throughout Scotland who produce local newspapers on tape.

Andrew Lenihan Chairman of the service also highlighted that as every local authority in Scotland holds a register of visually impaired people, were Cue and Review Recording Service allowed to supply each local authority with sufficient promotional cassettes to be sent to their clients, the Scottish charity would be able to maximise the return from the Community Fund grant.

Joe Fox one of the listeners to the service spoke of his relief at hearing of the award. Joe, from Riddrie in Glasgow, like many of the listeners to the service had known of the difficulties faced by the service in the last eighteen months following the Managing Editor's heart attack. With only two members of staff, when one of them is off due to ill health the charity suffers. We are now only recovering from Alastair's absence; we therefore need as much support as possible to ensure that this grant is the first of many achievements in our twenty first year.

To find out more about Cue and Review contact 0141-563-0306 or email twentyfirstappeal@cueandreview.org.uk or even visit our website