A BLIND veteran from Basingstoke celebrated the centenary of a charity that has supported him at a special event in Westminster Abbey.

Dennis Fleckney attended the service of thanksgiving on Tuesday where he joined 1,800 other veterans, staff and supporters of Blind Veterans UK to mark the military charity’s 100 years of service supporting blind and vision impaired ex service men and women.

The 84-year-old joined the army in 1948 and served in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers as a vehicle mechanic.

He was posted to Gibraltar in 1949 where his job was to inspect every motor vehicle on the island.

He returned to the UK in 1952 but left a year later with the rank of craftsman.

Dennis began to lose his sight in his mid 20s due to macular dystrophy, a rare genetic disease, which his two brothers and mother also have.

His two sons and two grandchildren have also inherited the condition.

He is now registered as blind and uses a white cane.

Dennis said: “Most of my central vision is gone and bits of my peripheral vision are missing too. I don’t notice the missing bits until I’m walking in town, and a woman is pushing a pushchair.

My peripheral vision will pick up the pushchair, but I’ll miss the child hanging on to the outside.”

Blind Veterans UK has trained Dennis to use a computer, and supplied him with audio books, a push-button to call for assistance if he falls, and a CCTV reader to help him read letters and newspapers.

He said: “As my sight got worse, I found I couldn’t read newspapers. If I received letters, I’d have to wait until my daughter visited to read them, and she had to do all my correspondence.

The CCTV from Blind Veterans UK has made me totally independent.”

He added: “I’m lucky to have lived to an age to celebrate the centenary. Blind Veterans UK do a lot for you and my welfare officer Hilary is very caring. We can chat openly. It’s like meeting a sister.”

The service of thanksgiving was conducted by the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, with songs from the Choir of Westminster Abbey.

There was also a performance from Welsh classical soprano Gwawr Edwards and readings from Blind Veterans UK supporters Barbara Windsor and David Dimbleby.

Mr Dimbleby said: “I have always been impressed by the way ex service men and women who have lost their sight find a new life, a new way of working and a new comradeship with the help of Blind Veterans UK.”

Blind Veterans UK (formerly St Dunstan’s) was founded in 1915 and the charity’s initial purpose was to help and support soldiers blinded in World War One.

But the organisation has gone on to support more than 35,000 blind veterans and their families, spanning World War II to recent conflicts including Iraq and Afghanistan.

For 100 years, the charity has been providing vital free training, rehabilitation, equipment and emotional support to blind and vision impaired veterans no matter when they served or how they lost their sight. Visit blindveterans.org.uk.