We’re celebrating International Women’s Day

Today is International Women’s Day – an annual event to celebrate the achievements of women all around the globe. We’re marking it by looking at some of our wonderful female recipients, supporters and our CEO, who has led the charity for more than 30 years.

International Women’s Day is observed around the world every year to celebrate the achievements of women across the globe.

We’re marking the event today (Wednesday, March 8th) by celebrating the wonderful and inspiring women we support and work with.

Dawn Parkinson is a well-known blind artist, who enjoys listening to her BWBF radio while she’s painting.

Despite having no sight at all in one of her eyes, and no peripheral vision in the other, she creates beautiful pieces of artwork.

She taught herself to paint and uses a magnifier which enables her to see things when she’s painting in 10p size at a time.

Her paintings, which can take her years to perfect, have been sold around the world and she also gives tales and runs workshops to inspire other blind people to take up art.

Another one of our inspiring recipients is Linda Fitchett, who has been supported by us for more than 40 years.

Linda had a small amount of vision in her left eye until she was in her 30s, but then she contracted glaucoma which left her with no vision at all.

She now works part-time as a teaching assistant in a secondary school, supporting visually impaired students by teaching Braille and basic computer skills.

British Wireless is also lucky to be supported by well-known British broadcaster Sue Cook, who is one of our patrons.

Sue started her career at London’s Capital Radio before moving to the BBC where presented programmes including Children in Need and Crimewatch.

She has been a supporter of BWBF for many years, endorsing our Christmas appeal every winter, and we’re delighted to have her on board, promoting the importance of radio and why it means so much to blind people.

This International Women’s Day we are also celebrating our CEO Margaret Grainger, who has been at the helm of our charity for more than 30 years.

Moving from a background in personnel management, she has built up the charity from a small team based in London to an organisation which is supporting thousands of visually impaired people every year, all across the UK.

During that time, she has been instrumental in selecting and incorporating new technology into the radios BWBF issues, making a difference to thousands of people with sight loss.

Margaret has also been part of numerous boards and panels for other charities and organisations championing the needs of older, lonely people and has also worked alongside Ofcom to ensure the needs of blind and partially sighted people are heard.