Victory Over Blindness

Joanna Domke-Guyot

Manchester Piccadilly Station

This piece pretty much stopped me in my tracks, even though I was cantering for the train home after a fairly fruitless day in Manchester (my first week back in 2019 isn't going so great). It's a reference to the more than 3,000 allied soldiers who returned back from WW1 without their sight. Maybe they counted themselves lucky - I don't know. At least they returned.

The charity set up in 1915 to help them, then known as St Dunstan's and now known as Blind Veterans UK is still going. 

It seemed odd to me there was not a single person in the few minutes I was at one of the busiest crossing points in Manchester who even paused to look or read the notice.

I'll say no more. An utterly otherwise futile trip, save for a decent IPA on the way back to the station.