A CHARITY which keeps visually impaired people up to speed about events in the borough is celebrating a major landmark this week.

Trafford Talking News for the Blind has compiled its 1,000th tape.

Each week the charity's dedicated volunteers put all the news from SAM onto tapes which are distributed free of charge by the Post Office to 250 visually impaired people.

The charity was set up in 1979 by Urmston Rotary Club. The first few copies were taped and sent out from the front room of one of the member's houses. Then the group moved to a garden shed on an allotment in Flixton.

Talking News for the Blind chairman, Hilda Roberts, says: "We are still based in that garden shed although it is not on an allotment any longer. We turned the shed into what we laughingly call 'the Studio'."

Hilda believes Talking News for the Blind provides an invaluable service: "It keeps visually impaired people in touch with what is going on in the Trafford area."

Four years ago the charity received an £8,000 National Lottery grant to upgrade its equipment.

And a few months ago when it was short of volunteers Hilda put out an appeal in the SAM: "As a result of that we got some new volunteers who have all been absolutely fantastic."

Founder member Ron Kelly will give a brief history of the charity at the start of the 1,000th tape.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.