Registered charity number 1121977
The Eye Fund Charity was established in 2006 by my family, after my brother Simon Sherry died.
Let me tell you about Simon
Simon was two years my younger, with Dave and Phil younger still. As the eldest and only sister, Simon was always a bit more than just a pain in the ass. He was clever, reading Dickens and doing mathematical equations for fun (which kid does that?). And then when he was 9, he lost an eye in a play accident with a friend. He almost died from meningitis. He almost lost both eyes. But instead of letting it get him down, he used it. He painted his artificial eyes with skull & crossbones, or cats eyes, or a union flag to scare the customers in our newsagents. He would deliberately open the door to my friends without his eye in and watch one particular friend almost feint every time. He refused to let having only one eye get the better of him, he threw himself into life. He embraced computers before they were a thing, played bass guitar and keyboards and recorded stuff with his band Midnight Snack, studied to become a Second Dan Wu Shu Kwan black belt without any concessions for his only having one eye, and he became a graphic designer.
But then at around 35, having kicked the ass of having only one eye, Simon began to experience difficulties with the vision in his right eye. Our cousin (Sir Paul McCartney: yes, really) signed Simon up with the best consultant to make things better, but despite having all of the tests under the sun, Professor Bird at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London diagnosed Simon with Retinal Cone Dystrophy. There was nothing more he/they could do. Simon would eventually lose the vision in his right eye. They gave him a white stick, the phone number for the RNIB and signed him off their books.
Well not surprisingly, Simon became a little obsessed with the eye. Suddenly almost all of his graphics were based on the eye, or featured the eye in some way. He withdrew into his own world and didn’t want any of us to interfere/help. He even moved all the way to Devon. Eventually, he had become so obsessed with his graphics that he would literally sit at his computers for hours or days on end until he had finished one. He would forget to eat. And despite our intervention and best intentions, Simon became so malnourished his heart gave in. He died aged 39 weighing less than 5 stone.
But why The Eye Fund?
In this modern world, and in this country, for someone to die from malnutrition is shameful, and if this were your family and not mine, I might be inclined to tut, and mutter “I’m sure there must have been something they could have done”. Well, there was. Simon travelled around the world to see the sights while he still could see them. He had the best computers with the best graphics cards that were voice activated. He had a family who loved him and who wanted to help. But still that wasn’t enough.
What he *didn’t* have, was counselling to help him come to terms with his loss because at that time, there was none available. In 2005, there were no specially trained vision loss counsellors: that too is shameful.
And although it was rather too late for Simon, as a family we wanted to fix that. We didn’t want other Simons to literally waste away and die. We didn’t want other families to go through what we had gone through. We decided to use the hundreds of graphics that Simon had left behind to raise funds to pay for counsellors. Since 2006, our small family charity has (by April 2021) raised £136, 340 which has paid for counsellors at the Arrowe Park hospital on the Wirral. We have a fully trained counsellor at the Wirral Society for the Blind and Partially Sighted. We have funded somebody to train as a counsellor. And in addition, have helped a huge number of individuals with iPads, computers, and all sorts of other clever gadgets.
But what has this got to do with cocktails?
Money is raised for The Eye Fund in many different ways. Mum gives talks. Dad makes jewellery. We all do race nights for organisations or clubs. And since 2015, my friends and I have been enjoying ‘Cocktails for Charity’ events in my home, and have added ~£3,000 to the funds, helping to support others like Simon.
Every single penny of my cocktail booklets sold also goes to The Eye Fund. My Cocktail Queen Masterclasses are proving ever more popular and I am happy to provide a party planning service for your cocktail party, with all of these proceeds also going to the charity.
My friends tell me their hangovers have never felt so worthwhile. Such a *totally* Simon thing to do!
Keep in touch @TheEyeFund or @CocktailQueen on Facebook.
Cocktail Queen 