The Veterans’ Foundation has awarded a grant of more than £20,000 to Erskine Veterans Charity to fund the services and salary of a part-time audiology specialist at the Erskine Reid Macewen Activity Centre in Bishopton.
The Veterans’ Foundation has given £21,700 to fund the charity’s EARS 2 Hear programme run by hearing support specialist Caroline McDonald to help provide hearing-related advice and care to veterans with individual hearing challenges.
It is the latest in a series of grants totalling £78,000 awarded to Erskine since 2018 by The Veterans’ Foundation, which raises funds through its Veterans’ Lottery to help charities provide vital assistance to the armed forces’ community.
The charity’s audiology programme was devised and is delivered by Caroline, who is herself hearing impaired. Her services have helped dozens of veterans around the country with their individual hearing problems, including diagnosis, hearing aid care and access to a variety of other services available to them.
Many of the veterans experience total or partial hearing loss as a result of their service, including from loud weapons and bomb blasts, as well as wounds and injury.
Erskine’s Philanthropy Manager, Victoria McEwan, said: “The Veterans’ Foundation has been helping us for some time and we really appreciate how they understand the vital work we are doing with veterans and what we are about. The generous funding from the Foundation allows us to continue our work of reaching out to veterans in the community to improve their lives by providing help such as the EARS 2 Hear service.”
Erskine Veterans Charity was launched in Bishopton, Scotland, in 1916, as a care home for servicemen who lost limbs during the Great War. It has since evolved to provide care homes, care in the community, drop-in centres offering financial, craft, sports and social activities to help veterans tackle isolation, as well as other mental and physical health issues.
Veterans’ Foundation’s Grants Manager, Sarah Kelling, said: “It is great to see how this very old veterans’ charity has evolved over the years to provide for the changing needs of our armed forces community.
“Many of us take our hearing for granted but it just one of the many challenges some of our veterans face, so we are delighted to be able to fund this programme, that can make such a difference to the wellbeing of our heroes in need.”
To support projects just like this and be in with a chance to win up to £75,000 you can play the Veterans' Lottery today.
