CHARITIES have teamed up to support a group of blind and partially sighted people take part in a sensory nature walk.

iSightCornwall, Cornwall’s sight loss charity, were able to organise a visit to Carnanton Woods near St Mawgan for a number of its charity’s members after receiving a £300 donation from Newquay Towan Blystra Lions.

The trip took place with sensory advisor, Maria Hocking who designed the walk and route specifically for people with sight loss. She described the group’s surroundings as they made their way through Carnanton Woods and taught them how certain plants and seeds can be eaten or used as household cleaning materials.

The walk focused on using other senses to enjoy being in nature, emphasising the noise of the wind and stream, the smell of the woods and flowers and how certain leaves and trees feel.

The Newquay Towan Blystra Lions also provided their own members as guides for the sensory walk. The Lions undertook a training session with iSightCornwall before guiding the blind and partially sighted members through the woods, describing their surroundings and helped their partner to touch and feel the plants identified by Maria.

The walk was also supported by the town’s other Lions club, the Newquay Lions, who provided a minibus and driver at a very discounted rate to ensure all of the iSightCornwall members were able to get to the activity.

The outing was part of iSightCornwall’s work to prevent isolation and to promote the importance of staying active amongst blind and partially sighted people in the county.

iSightCornwall’s Wellbeing co-ordinator Sophie Butcher said: “Keeping active is good for both our physical and mental wellbeing yet over 50% of blind and partially sighted people feel limited in the activities they can take part in.

“Because of this we are always looking for opportunities to help prevent isolation and thanks to the support of Newquay Towan Blystra Lions we were able to organise this wonderful walk with Maria.”

iSightCornwall member and trustee, Beatrix said: “I really enjoyed the walk, being out in nature is one of my favourite things. I would live in the woods if I could. It makes such a big difference, getting out and about and using all of our other senses to explore.

“Maria our guide was incredible. We have learned so much and I would like to say a big thank you to the iSightCornwall team for arranging today and also the Newquay Towan Blystra Lions and the Newquay Lions for supporting the walk.”

Phil Bunt, First Vice District Governor for the Lions in the Southwest and a member of the Newquay Towan Blystra Lions said: “We have been delighted to help iSightCornwall put the walk on in Newquay. Eye sight is so important to the Lions as an organisation, we have 1.4 million Lions across the world and one of the service activities that is so important to them in every single country is vision and so being able to put something back into it at a local level, and see the reaction from those who are visually impaired to being able to come out into the environment like this has been really worthwhile.”