Sight Life attends royal celebration at Westminster Abbey

Sight Life joined hundreds of charities at a Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey to celebrate the remarkable difference they make in their communities.
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales was among the guests at the special service, which was held by the Benefact Group to celebrate its achievement of giving over £100million to good causes.
Sight Life was invited to attend the service as one of the 10,000 charities that has benefited from Benefact Group’s giving.
Last October, Sight Life was one of 30 charities chosen by a panel of judges to receive £10,000 as part of specialist insurer Ecclesiastical’s Movement for Good awards, which is giving £1million to good causes this year.
Sight Life, in particular, Carys Groves, Community Co-ordinator for Rhondda Cynon Taff, used the award to develop a project “Beautifully Blind: Make up application tutorials’ Carys said ‘The project objectives are to instil confidence, develop peer to peer support and equip women who have a vision impairment with the essential skills required to apply make-up independently.”
His Royal Highness attended the service on behalf of The Prince’s Foundation. Benefact Group has supported the Foundation for a number of years.
Speakers included Jay Blades, star of the Repair Shop and supporter of literacy charity Read Easy UK, and Sally Randall, CEO and Founder of Abby’s Heroes.
Michelle Jones, Operations Manager at Sight Life said, “it was a privilege to receive the grant support from Ecclesiastical’s Movement for Good and to attend the event at Westminster Abbey. It was an honour to be invited to such a prestigious event and to meet and exchange good news stories with other very worthy beneficiaries and causes from across the UK.”
Benefact Group distributes donations through a range of programmes – employee giving, business giving and Group-led programmes such as its Movement for Good Awards – as well as giving all available profits to its charitable owner, the Benefact Trust.
This year’s Movement for Good Awards are open and will see £1million given to charities.
Sight Life is encouraging people to nominate them for a chance to win £1,000. It’s quick and easy to nominate us at www.movementforgood.com
Winners will be drawn at random and the more times Sight Life is nominated the more chance it has of being selected. If successful Sight Life will use this funding to further the Beautifully Blind sessions and develop the confidence and independence of the participants. (Details of how to nominate Sight Life are listed in the notes below).

Mark Hews, Group Chief Executive of Benefact Group, said: “As a company whose purpose is to contribute to the greater good of society, charitable giving is at the heart of what we do.

“Our Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey was a celebration of the incredible work that charities do every day in their communities. We are very proud of our achievement of donating £100million to good causes, which has helped to change thousands of lives for the better in the UK and abroad.”

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Notes for editors

Contact details Richard Harvey: 029 2039 8900

About Sight Life

• Sight Life (formerly Cardiff Institute for the Blind) supports people who are blind or partially sighted in south Wales. In 2020/21 we helped more than 3,000 people in Cardiff, Swansea, RCT (Rhondda Cynon Taf), Neath and Port Talbot.
• We provide statutory services to people with sight loss on behalf of the local Councils in Cardiff and Swansea.
• In cooperation with the NHS, we provide a support service (ECLO: Eye Clinic Liaison Officer) for patients newly diagnosed with sight loss in University Hospital of Wales (UHW “The Heath”) in Cardiff.
• Our aims are to ensure that people with sight loss can take part in all aspects of society, including work and leisure.
• We offer a range of training, clubs and activities including audio-described theatre trips, confidence building, cooking, drama, employment support, fitness, gardening, IT, music, photography, rambling and yoga to people with sight loss.
• Established in 1865, we are one of Wales’ oldest charities. In spring 2022 we will return to being an independent charity after being part of the UK wide RNIB Group since 2009.
• We have approximately a dozen staff and annual income in the region of £440,000 from statutory contracts, grants, trusts, The National Lottery, donations and legacies.
• Sight Life changed its name from Cardiff Institute for the Blind in 2019 to reflect the fact that we work beyond Cardiff, including Swansea and RCT (Rhondda Cynon Taf). The name change also recognises the fact that we support people with any degree of sight loss, not only those who are blind.
• For more information visit https://sightlife.wales/
• For information on the Beautifully Blind Sessions please call us on 029 2039 8900

About Benefact Group
1. Benefact Group is an independent, specialist financial services group that exists to give all its available profits to charity. Owned by a registered charity, Benefact Trust, Benefact Group’s family of businesses provide specialist insurance, investment management and broking and advisory services in the UK, Australia, Canada and Ireland.
2. Benefact Group is the fourth-largest corporate donor to charity in the UK, according to the UK Guide to Company Giving 2021/22. It has donated over £100m to charity since 2016 and is aiming to reach its target of giving £250m by 2025. Find out more here: www.benefactgroup.com

About the Movement for Good Awards & Supporting Sight Life
1. Benefact Group’s Movement for Good Awards is giving away over £1million to help charities change lives for the better.
2. 250 £1,000 grants will be given away in June, a further 250 £1,000 grants will be donated in September, followed by 120 £1,000 grants which will be given away in December. £500,000 will also be given in larger grants later this year.
3. The £1,000 awards launch on Monday 9 May and is open to all UK-registered charities. From 9 May anyone can nominate a registered charity at any time for the chance to receive £1,000. For more information visit www.movementforgood.com
4. To Nominate Sight Life please visit https://movementforgood.com/#nominateACharity and enter our company number in the Search Box : 214131 – Sight Life will be listed as Cardiff Institute for the Blind which is the name that the Charity is registered as. Please then complete the rest of the form as required.

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