Simon Mahoney M.A

Blind author, veteran, consultant and campaigner for sight loss awareness

Phone:

+44 7730 409730

Email:

A Bit About Me

I live in Ashbourne, a small market town at the foot of the Pennines in Derbyshire. I began my working life as a young officer in the Royal Marines, but left at the end of training. I then spent most of my time as a social worker, acquiring a business degree, a psychology degree, and an MA in social work, before retiring as a principal officer in 1996. There followed nearly 10 years in logistics which, in my own words, “Required the almost constant application of the suspension of disbelief.”

Finally retiring to Ashbourne to paint, sail and walk, in 2012 I began to lose my sight. Fortunate to join Blind Veterans once I was registered as severely sight impaired, I volunteered for the charity for seven years. Determined not to waste my professional training or my experience of sight loss, I started writing in 2018.

I spend my spare time gardening, sailing, listening to a diverse array of books on Audible or Kindle, and researching everything associated with sight loss with a view to raising awareness of all its associated implications on a personal and national level.

A little bit about my books

My first book, A Descent into Darkness

is about just that: the process of losing your sight and the psychological, social, functional and emotional challenges of going blind.

My second book, First Catch Your Rabbit

is a survival guide for the kitchen when totally blind. It is based on suddenly having to fend for myself in the kitchen after my wife died. This book was featured on three Radio 4 programmes, the World Service, and numerous local radio channels as well as RNIB Radio Connect.

My third book, Winging it Blind

is an expansion on Descent, but written in the light (or lack!) of being blind, and is designed as a guide and an encouragement to always “challenge what you think possible” should you be considering giving up on life!

My fourth book, A WAAF at War

documents the wartime memories of a 100-year-old colleague, Margaret Wilson, from Blind Veterans whom I telephone-befriended for four years. It is the true account of life as a signals intelligence collector and transcriber of enemy signal traffic at Bletchley Park as told to me by Margaret.

My fifth book, or booklet, Chasing the Catheter

and accompanying leaflet, is based on my experience as an inpatient in a local hospital and outlines how medics can make life easier for visually impaired patients, and themselves. It became the subject of a film involving the hospital’s Patient Experience team and forms part of my training program for new and existing staff in how to approach and care for visually impaired or blind patients.

My sixth book, Who are Keeping the Blind in the Dark?

charts the path from diagnosis of sight impairment and/or blindness to the clinics and beyond, where a combination of complacence, a lack of information and funding, and an absence of compassion in the eye sector is compared to those who operate out of a desire to assist, comfort and guide the newly diagnosed and their families and friends.

Other Projects

In addition to writing, I am active on various committees and groups within Blind Veterans, contribute regularly to the work of the Partially Sighted Society, am a member of the Moorfields Vision Loss Advisory Panel (and their Patient Experience Framework workshop), and regularly speak to various community groups about sight loss, including schools. I have made a number of films with Henshaws, a charity founded in the north of England, have recorded numerous podcasts, and also harass my MP about sight loss on a regular basis. A member of U3A (University of the Third Age) and on the committee of the local Royal British Legion, I am a familiar figure in the town.

Key Contacts