Vision Pioneer Awards 2016 video transcript
F: Funmi Majekodunmi
L: Lesley-Anne Alexander
T: Tina Houlihan
I: Irenie Ekkeshis
H: Hannah Adams
D: David Probert
J: John Ramm
P: Paula Varney
F: The Vision Pioneer Awards is a fantastic venture between the UK Vision Strategy, RNIB and NB Online. I’m Funmi Majekodunmi, Marketing Manager, Intermediaries at RNIB. I’m really pleased to be here today at our first ever Vision Pioneer Awards. The awards aim to shine a spotlight on the fantastic work that eye health and sight loss professionals do across the country in supporting blind and partially sighted people.
L: It’s my job to welcome you to the first ever Vision Pioneer Awards. I’m Lesley-Anne Alexander and I’m RNIB’s Chief Executive. For everybody who is either starting to lose their sight or has already lost their sight, the work of the people here this evening is just life changing. So, fantastic congratulations to all of our winners but, do you know, congratulations to everybody that took part in the awards.
F: The Vision Pioneer Awards have five categories. They cover Innovation, Team of the Year, Campaigns and there were two individual awards for people working with adults and children and young people.
T: Campaign of the Year. And the winner is Irenie Ekkeshis.
I: About five years ago, I got a very rare but sight-threatening corneal infection caused by a microbe called Acanthamoeba getting inside my contact lens and then from there into my eye and decided to start a campaign to raise awareness of the no water issue to get wearers to avoid water exposure when wearing the lenses. To be standing here now and have recognition for something that I’ve done as a result of that terrible experience is just incredible.
H: The winner is the Royal London Society of Blind People for Wayfindr.
F2: We won the innovation award which is a great achievement for us, definitely.
F3: Really excited.
M: Hopefully, it will support the idea actually being implemented across different cities around the world.
D: Team of the Year. And the winner tonight is the Neuro-Ophthalmic Visual Impairment in Children clinic team, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.
F4: We’re delighted to have won the award as Team of the Year and it’s really great for our whole team.
J: The Children and Young People award. And the winner is Paula Varney.
P: I actually don’t think I’ve won this award for me, to be fair. I think I’ve won it for the amazing team that I work with, the amazing team at Vista and the amazing team at the Leicester Royal Infirmary.
F: We had 50 people enter the competition. Trying to pick a winner has been extremely difficult and although it’s been a very hard process, it’s also been one of the most enjoyable processes because we have absolutely five fantastic winners tonight. To be the first to hear about events like this, sign up to NB’s enews at rnib.org.uk/nb
RNIB, supporting people with sight loss.
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