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Bedford Talking Newspaper for the Blind (BDAN) Registered UK charity no. 802814 |
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Meet a selection of volunteers
Revised: January 2012  Volunteers and friends of BDAN, pictured after a successful fundraising lunch at Biddenham in 2007 Around 60 people give their spare time to run Bedford and District Audio News. From committee members to preparers, readers to recordists. The aim is to make sure that the charity operates smoothly, that each weekly and quarterly tapes and USB sticks are produced to a high standard, and that they are sent promptly to as many people as possible who qualify. 
Volunteering with BDANVolunteer backgrounds vary: young and older, unemployed, in full-time work or retired. Those born and bred in and around Bedfordshire, others who have moved to the area for family, business or other reasons. Many live in Bedford, others further afield - even in neighbouring counties. Some assist on an occasional basis, others every few weeks or each week. New helpers are always welcome, in order to replace those who retire, move away from Bedford, or whose commitments change and are therefore unable to continue. Further details for prospective members are given on the Get Involved page.  Above: Volunteers, Sue Barrow and David Mitchell enjoy homemade cake after the Annual General Meeting, May 2011
This page also features free WAV and WMA format audio clips. If you have a problem accessing any of the files using a computer, try clicking the other mouse / touch pad button and using Save Target As instead and, once downloaded, clicking on Open. The material remains the copyright of Bedford and District Audio News, and is for private, personal use only. Newspaper text is by kind permission of Bedfordshire Times and Citizen (Johnson Press) and Bedfordshire on Sunday (LSN Media) |
Above: The annual fundraising lunch - an opportunity for volunteers to socialise and also meet listeners|
Introducing ... A selection of BDAN helpers ...
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Sue Forsdike
 Sue began as a reader for BDAN in 1992. Since then, the studio has moved several times, including based in an attic room: 'Complete with huge spiders!', she recalls. Sue has been a Team Leader, relief reader, six-weekly recordist, and is now a regular reader again. Married with four children, Sue is a volunteer for a local group that befriends vulnerable families, and is a member of an evangelical church. For some years she ran her own belly dancing business, performing locally at the Bedford River Festival, Kempston Fun Day, Cople village fete and Ickwell Bury. In her spare time she enjoys nothing better than curling up with a Maeve Binchy novel. Audio Clip of Sue Click your mouse / pointer on this link (or if that doesn't work, use the other mouse button and click Save Target As, then Open) to hear an audio clip of Sue Forsdike, introducing a weekly BDAN news cassette back in 2004 Phil Roberts  Phil began his work career with a five-year engineering apprenticeship at Marconi. Then, as he says: 'I commenced a short-lived but spectacular career in Newport Pagnell! I was a planning engineer, and nearly caused a factory walkout in my second week, by watching a team fitting a windscreen. The works manager explained that they thought I was secretly timing them!' Phil joined a Wellingborough-based engineering business, rising from lathe operator to production controller and spent many happy years as an on-the-road sales engineer for a hydraulics manufacturer. Later, whilst working in Uttoxeter, he met HRH Prince Charles. Phil became sales manager for a Grantham-based engineering company. The firm was taken over in 2000, and Phil says he was: 'Fortunate in being "let go" to start my retirement the next year.' He enjoys various leisure pursuits but he jokes: 'I try to convince myself that I enjoy gardening!' Phil joined BDAN in early 2008 and, from being a standby helper, he is now a regular six-weekly reader on the news programme. Phil says: 'From a technical point of view it has, on occasions, been nerve-wracking but very satisfying personally, and I like the opportunity of making a small contribution to the lives of other people.' Joyce Buck  Joyce helps sort through the returned weekly news cassette / USB stick wallets (from last week) and keeps the listener database up-to-date. 'It is important to note if a person doesn't return his or her tape,' explains Joyce, a volunteer since 1994. 'After several weeks we will investigate'. As well as making replacement address labels for such cases, Joyce also adds new listeners, noting the all important birthdays on the calendar - to be read on the appropriate week. Joyce also has to deal with messages, for example, if a listener moves house or no longer requires the tapes. 'Sometimes a listener will be away or in hospital,' she says. Born in London, in 1923, Joyce first came to Bedfordshire as an older evacuee in WWII. However, she had to return to London in order to find regular work. Billeted in the WAAF, she returned to Luton, and met her husband through one his friends. She spent much of her working career at a solicitors and a travel agency. She originally heard about Talking Newspapers through her uncle who gave talks on Mozart to the blind in the Southwick / Brighton area. Joyce moved to Bedford in 1987. In her retirement, Joyce has also been involved with the local Red Cross and helps at Age Concern. Other past and present activities have included country dancing, keep fit and internet classes. Jack Stevens  Jack has been involved in most aspects of BDAN during 30 years with the charity. Starting as a reader, he was also recordist for the quarterly cassette for 20 years from 1983, and organised the rota of readers and technicians for over two decades. Of the many interviews that he has recorded, Jack has fond memories of two in particular; Interviewing a blind 80 year old lady whilst flying in an airship over Bedford was one of the strangest. The other was with the town's famous athlete Paula Radcliffe when she was in her final year at college. Jack served in the Royal Engineers from 1942, retiring as Major in 1955. He then took up mathematics teaching - mainly at Bedford Modern School - until 1982. Vice Chairman for 18 years from 1988, Jack retired from the committee in 2006. He continues to be involved as a reader on the Magazine programme. Simon Evans-Evans  Simon joined the charity in 1999 as a six weekly studio recordist. After over ten years service, Simon stepped down. However, he continues to assist on an occasional basis. He also read with the Ampthill and Flitwick service until its closure at the end of 2008. Simon's great grandmother was blind, and as a youngster Simon remembers he and his brothers would try to disguise their footsteps going along the hallway to see her: 'But she always knew it was us!" Simon jokes. "I remember her saying how she missed reading.' 'Nowadays, There are plenty of books on tape, but fewer news and magazine features, so Talking Newspapers provide a vital service.' Simon is a qualified member of the Chartered Institute of Management and the Northern Leadership Academy. Outside work, his many skills include being a netball umpire and coach at his daughter's club. He is also Treasurer of Light Fantastic, an annual charity auction that has raised over £100,000 for the Sue Ryder cause over four events! Describing his BDAN duties, Simon says: 'It is only one evening every six weeks, and my wife and two daughters are probably grateful for an evening to themselves!' |
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Hear some more BDAN readers in action... |
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Bob Main informs listeners to the weekly tape of pub changes made by a local brewery, May 2007 Click here to listen Sue Barrow reads about a Bedford College student's success in a national competition, June 2007 Click here for the audio Newsreader Lesley Pitter provides the times of sunset and sunrise before reading an article about a local bypass scheme, March 2007 Click here to listen Magazine Elsie Slack introduces Gill Martell who reads an amusing story written by Gillian May, from the November 2006 quarterly Magazine tape. Available here by kind permission of Gillian May Click here to enjoy the tale |
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In Conversation...
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Janet Cook
Janet is a founding member of BDAN. She is a sorter / preparer and Treasurer since the charity's inception in 1978. Here she talks about the charity... 
How and when did you become involved with BDAN?'My aunt had a friend with failing eyesight and she asked me to accompany her to a meeting about forming a group to assist blind people. I came away having been elected Treasurer!' What are the Treasurer's duties? 'To account for, and explain all of the income and expenditure of BDAN. As a charity we work within strict guidelines, and our financial affairs have to be monitored and scrutinised very carefully. The public must have confidence that our money is spent appropriately' What sort of person volunteers for work with BDAN? 'Someone who is caring and understanding and wants to contribute to society in general - possibly even a relative or friend of someone already volunteering or taking our tapes' How do you think the service will change in the future? 'Keeping in mind what our listeners' actually want is important. Hopefully we can always change to fulfil their needs. After all, they are the reason we produce the material. We regularly get correspondence from listeners. The feedback I have had is that they look forward to receiving their tapes' |
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From The Archives...
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A selection of people who have now retired from, or left, BDAN
Former volunteer, Judy Knudsen, pictured duplicating the weekly news cassette tapes on Friday 30th August 1991 - photographed by the Beds Times (now Bedfordshire Times and Citizen)Used by kind permission of Times and Citizen - photographer: Pete Felstead Dennis Craddock  Dennis read as part of a weekly team between 1996 - 2009, although he assisted on occasions before this. He was also a familiar voice on the Magazine tape, reading articles until 2011. From 1999 - 2010 he was also Publicity Officer for the charity. Among his other leisure pursuits, he has a keen interest in genealogy, travel, and amateur dramatics. Audio Clip Click on this link to hear Dennis reading about one of Bedford's historic objects in December 2004 Eira Grewer  Eira and her husband, Robin, moved to Bedford from Cheshire in 1981, and Eira became involved with BDAN as a reader in 1990. Over the next 19 years, Eira read on both the weekly news and quarterly magazine cassettes. She joined the committee as Secretary in 1992, and five years later was elected Chairman when the late Roy Purser retired. Eira served in the post until 2004, when she herself retired to spend more time visiting her daughter in New Zealand. For about 30 years, she was a teacher, first in Nigeria at a girls' school and a teacher training establishment, and later in colleges of further education in Britain. The job she most enjoyed she found in her last 10 years of teaching, when she joined Bedford Study Centre and taught English to adult students from all over the world. Audio Clip Click here to listen to Eira read a spoof letter about a controversial proposed cull of wild geese, from a weekly tape in May 2004 A 2008 interview with Elsie Slack Editor of the Magazine tape between 1993 - 2008
How and when did you first become involved with Bedford's Talking Newspaper service? 'When I was at work, about 1987. I was looking around for something extra to do. I started as a reader on the weekly news tape. I have a number of blind friends who take the tapes, and also a connection with the Bedford Blind Bowling Club too' How did you get involved with the Magazine? 'I had been reading for the Magazine for some years and, when Joan Stuart retired as Editor in late 1992, they approached me to take the reins'  Elsie Slack, pictured at the charity's annual fundraising lunch in 2006 Did the Magazine change over the years? If so, how? 'I suppose it has changed quite a bit. I knew some people at the Bedford Retirement Education Centre (REC), and they began to write features for us, so that made it a bit more original. They work well as a team, there's a good "team spirit", whereas it was perhaps more based on individuals when I started' How long did it take to prepare a typical Magazine tape? 'It varied, depending on how much material had been sent in. It took a day to write-up the schedule and timings. Then I liaised with our technician, Neil Curran, and taped my introduction and links. That usually took about an hour and a half. Neil then records the readers individually over a period of about two weeks. He then edits the material, taking out any fluffs / mistakes, before transferring it from minidisc to cassette. The master tape is copied at high speed in our studio' How did you decide what to include? 'When looking for material, I tried to choose a mix of long and shorter articles. I imagined that I was browsing a magazine, so tried to provide a broad spread of enjoyable features. We also kept it quite down-to-earth' Do you have any particular favourites of all the articles you used? 'I enjoyed the articles BDAN or REC people write themselves, and I liked the poetry - that's my real love. We had some amusing articles, including from local church magazines, where they sometimes knock themselves in good humour. I also liked the live music we occasionally had - the late John Stanley would sing and play music - good songs, nice ones' Elsie retired as Editor at the end of 2008. |
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And Finally...
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* * * * Christmas Corner * * * *
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Christmas food brought by the team Above: Pauline, James, Angela and Lorna enjoy seasonal fare, before a recording in Dec 2009 Left: Jean as Mother Christmas, ready to load the BDAN sleigh with sacks of cassettes in 2010! Below: Laughter and party food at the pre-Christmas recording in December 2010 - Monica, Pauline and James share a joke
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Interested in supporting the charity? See Get Involved, accessible via the Index page Are you a former member of BDAN? If so, why not get back in touch - see the Get Involved page for a special message for you! More information on the charity's past achievements is shown on the History page Looking to interview someone from BDAN, or book a speaker for your event? See Get Involved Do you have feedback or suggestions about this website - please get in touch - see Get Involved |
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