Wednesday 03rd March marked the 100th birthday for East Sussex Association of Blind and Partially Sighted People, (ESAB).

70 members, volunteers, committee members and employees joined Daniel Brookbank, CEO and ESAB’s Chairman, Ian Fletcher Price, to raise a glass on Zoom to mark the occasion. Also attending the online meeting were Sir Peter Field, the Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex and his wife Lady Field, who both congratulated the ESAB team on a remarkable 100 years of service. Sir Peter Field is the patron for ESAB and is also severely sight impaired.

The birthday celebrations were due to take place at The House of Lord’s but current circumstances meant the charity had to adapt and opt for an online gathering instead. Plans have been made for a belated birthday celebration at The Grand Hotel, Eastbourne in February 2022.

Ian Fletcher Price shared a brief history of the charity and highlighted some of the most notable achievements over the last one hundred years. More recently in 2010 ESAB were awarded the ‘Positive about Disabled’ two tick disability symbol by Job Centre Plus in recognition of their positive attitude in employing people with a disability. In 2019 they received the Queens Award for Voluntary Service, “A stand out moment in ESAB’s entire history and one we will be very proud of for a very long time”, the Chairman remarked.

Daniel Brookbank, CEO spoke about the challenges and his optimism for the future, “This last year has been one of our most challenging, but I can only imagine how my predecessors handled 1939 to 1945… we still fight for people with sight loss to have jobs, homes and the right to live an independent life and we will continue to do so until everyone has the opportunities offered to sighted people. ESAB is as strong today as it has always been.”

If you would like to get involved and help raise some funds for ESVS so we can continue to provide life changing support for blind and partially sighted people of East Sussex – please do get in touch. We’d love to know what you have planned.