Blind Veterans UK moves from Ovingdean to Rustington

A charity which cares for blind former service personnel has marked moving its HQ with a clean up of veterans' graves.

Blind Veterans UK is moving from Ovingdean in East Sussex to Rustington in West Sussex.

The charity's new home is more suited to residents with visual impairments, rather than the current seven-storey building.

The graves of nearly 300 veterans in a cemetery near Brighton were cleaned by community volunteers.

The cemetery holds the graves of 277 servicemen and women, with the ashes of 360 more scattered nearby.

One of the volunteers, Aileen Mountford, said: "It's very humbling, very rewarding, just giving back a little bit to the people that did so much for us."

Volunteer co-ordinator for Blind Veterans UK, Jo Parker-Smith, said the cemetery will maintain a link with Brighton.

"This will be our focal point," she said.

"We will still have remembrance services here, this is our legacy."

The site the charity is leaving was purpose-built in 1938.

"It's in the shape of an aeroplane, we have two wings and a fuselage, and a bull nose heading towards France," said Lesley Garven, the centre's head.

"The difficulty that brings for our members is orientation, getting around the building.

"Rustington is a two-storey, we're basically on the beach, so our members will have so much opportunity and independence."

For 96-year-old resident Betty Tring the move to a building that was an RAF Benevolent Fund holiday home is a positive one.

"I know what's gone on in this place before is now not possible, and the place we're going to is magic in my head because it's an RAF place," she said.

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