TAVISTOCK Lions Club will stage an event in Tavistock's Bedford Square as part of the World Health Organisation's World Sight Day, on Saturday October 1.

Lions Club members will be in the square with various displays and activities to help raise awareness of sight disorders and blindness.

They will also focus attention on how preventable blindness can be eradicated, especially in underdeveloped countries, by actions such as improving the quality of drinking water and eliminating black fly, the bite of which causes an infectious disease known as 'river blindness'.

The Lions will be joined by West Devon Borough deputy mayor Robin Musgrave and town mayor Philip Sanders and it is hoped that they will agree to 'step into the unknown' by taking a blindfolded walk around the square, an experience that will also be available for anyone else to try.

There will be other sight-related activities suitable for children and adults which will help everyone to gain an understanding of what it is like to have restricted sight or no vision at all.

The event runs from 10am through to 3pm and supporting the Lions will be representatives from Guide Dogs for the Blind, the Macular Disease Society, the West of England School (for children with little or no sight), RP Fighting Blindness, Tavistock's own Talking Newspaper and staff from the local branch of Specsavers.

Over the years, the Lions Club of Tavistock has collected many hundreds of pairs of used spectacles which have been sent to Third World countries where, through the Lions International organisation, they have been graded and given out to people in need.

The Lions are asking people who have old pairs of spectacles to bring them to the square.

Musical entertainment will be provided by Lodestone Morris.

Lions Clubs worldwide have always been great supporters of sight related projects and as far back as 1925, Helen Keller, who was blind as well as deaf, challenged the Lions to become 'knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness' — the Lions Clubs in America were responsible for promoting the use of the white stick by the blind.

It will be a busy day in the square as the event coincides with 'The Big Draw', a national campaign to encourage people to draw and which is supported by West Devon Borough Council. People will be able to join artists in the 'workshop under the sky' yurt which will be full of flowers and foliage where they can create their own pictures.