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Ishani Bechoo: I'm Ishani Bechoo; I'm the Magazines Manager
at RNIB. We're here today at NB Live, which is NB magazine's first ever conference for
eye health and sight loss professionals.
NB Live 2014 was chaired by blind BBC journalist, Gary O'Donoghue.
Gary O'Donoghue: Now, the title of the conference today is
the eye care and the sight loss sectors working better together. I think that's a constant
theme, isn't it, over the years. Different bits of the sector working in their own way
and not perhaps in as much of a joined up way as possible. That's a constant revolution
that needs to be addressed.
Ishani Bechoo: The keynote was delivered by Dr Kamlesh Chauhan.
Kamlesh Chauhan: The challenge that we face is enormous, as
I'm sure we're all aware. We have to find solutions but with no extra money and with
little hard evidence about what actually works our best hope is for organisations across
the sight loss and eye health sector to bring their individual areas of expertise to bear
and to join together to offer solutions to policymakers that will save them money and
be more patient centred.
Ishani Bechoo: One of the highlights of NB Live is a very
moving talk by Suzie Simons, NB's popular columnist, who will be telling us about her
experience of being diagnosed with sight loss.
Suzie Simons: So when they asked me how I was finding things
I would make all the right noises and say I'm fine, I'm coming to terms with it. I felt
sure if I showed how difficult I was finding the transition I would be deemed an unfit
mother.
Ishani Bechoo: We have two interactive workshops in the afternoon.
One of them is on dementia and sight loss and the other is about supporting people with
learning disabilities and visual impairment.
Female: I was very impressed with the workshops, in
particular how inclusive they were.
Female: I found both workshops very useful and very
good resources and information to take home with us.
Female: It's been really good coming to this conference
because we're talking about CVI, how to register.
And it's made me pick up a few tips and other areas that we need to be looking at.
Female: Today has been absolutely amazing. There's
such a broad spectrum of speakers and plenty of opportunity to ask questions
and generated lots of discussion.
Ishani Bechoo: NB Live has been a huge success and we hope
that this will become a yearly event.