‘Blindness is not the end of the world’

The tragedy of soldiers blinded by war is an emotive issue seldom aired in public. However, the way soldiers come to terms with their loss, and the extraordinary devotion shown to them by organisations such as St Dunstan’s, provide uplifting insight into this particular aspect of Britain’s present and past military campaigns.

Ray Hazan, 64, lost his right hand and his sight in 1973 when, as a captain and the second-in-command of the 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment, a parcel that had been booby-trapped by the IRA blew up in his face during a tour of duty in Londonderry.

After long treatment in hospital, he went for training at St Dunstan’s, and when a job subsequently came up inside the organisation in 1977 he applied and was accepted. He has stayed ever since and in 2004 was selected to be the president. The stories he has to tell about the way blinded soldiers learn to adapt and start new lives are inspirational. “Our youngest soldier is only 20,” he says. “He lost his sight in Iraq and when he arrived he had no confidence but he found people in similar situations as himself who were laughing and joking, which helped him to realise that it is possible to become accustomed to a new lifestyle.”

There are at present 2,783 past members of the Armed Forces who have passed through St Dunstan’s. Known as “St Dunstaners”, 205 are categorised as “war-blinded” — 123 post-Second World War. They include five from the campaign in Iraq and one from Afghanistan, a dozen from Northern Ireland, three from the 1991 Gulf War and one from Bosnia.
The second youngest St Dunstaner, Craig Lundberg, 23, a former section commander and sniper with the 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment in Iraq, suffered permanent sight loss when in March 2007 he sustained severe injuries from a rocket-propelled grenade attack. Another soldier, Simon Brown, 30, a former corporal with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) suffered severe facial injuries after a sniper attack in Iraq in December 2006. He lost his left eye and retains only peripheral vision in his right eye. Hazan explains that Brown, and other blinded veterans, were taught new skills and helped to start careers. “We have 49 different professions among the St Dunstaners. We haven’t had an airline pilot yet but we are working on it,” he says with a laugh. In Simon Brown’s case, as well as teaching him independent living skills and providing equipment, St Dunstan’s has supported him working towards a qualification in information technology and helped with his application to college to gain a certificate of education to teach mechanics.

“He has a lovely attitude, he’s so positive,” Hazan says. “Some people come to us who are terrified but after a short time with us they change completely and their confidence returns. Blindness is not the end of the world.” The oldest resident of St Dunstan’s flagship centre at Ovingdean, just outside Brighton, is Henry Allingham, who is not only the oldest surviving veteran from the First World War but also, at 113, the oldest man in the world. St Dunstan’s has 109 beds for residents.

Given the nature of the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan where roadside bombs, mines and rocket-propelled grenades have posed the gravest danger to soldiers’ daily lives, it is perhaps remarkable that more troops have not received injuries that have led to blindness. “There are several reasons for this, first of all eye protection is now better for the soldiers but also modern surgical techniques have saved individuals from permanent loss of sight,” Hazan says.

St Dunstan’s was founded in the First World War when Sir Arthur Pearson, a newspaper proprietor who was blind from glaucoma, noticed the soldiers coming home with serious eye injuries, often caused by gas attacks, and decided to set up a special centre for them. He donated £5,000. The first home for St Dunstan’s, which was established on March 16, 1915, was at Winfield House in Regents Park, now the residence of the American Ambassador to the Court of St James. St Dunstan’s moved to its location near Brighton in 1927. It costs £27 million a year to run the entire St Dunstan’s operation, the centre at Ovingdean and another one in Sheffield. There are plans to open a third, at Llandudno.

St Dunstan’s is a charitable organisation for ex-Service personnel and for reservists if they have served for more than three years, and it relies on donations and beneficiaries. In 1965 it stopped fundraising because it was judged to have enough money to cater for all the needs of blinded ex-servicemen up to the end of the century. In 1993, however, St Dunstan’s started raising money once again to ensure there were enough funds both for the war-blinded and for those who have lost their sight because of age, accident or illness.

Hazan, a father of two sons in their 30s, feels privileged to be the president of St Dunstan’s and to share his life and experiences with the people who have suffered similar war injuries. “We have a chap here who lost his left hand and his sight, so when we go skiing together, we share gloves. He has the right one and I have the left one.”

Source:The times