A MUSSELBURGH woman is starring in a new TV advert for the charity Sight Scotland.
Freda Steel, who has been blind since her premature birth, and her Sight Scotland befriender Tamas Danyi-Nagy, who is also from Musselburgh, appear in the advert, which runs until the end of next month.
The advert is part of the charity’s new More Than Meets The Eye campaign, which aims to dispel the negative perceptions of people in Scotland living with sight loss.
It aims to show the 180,000 people living with sight loss in Scotland what is possible, and that vision impairment is not a “barrier to living a happy and fulfilling life”.
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A photo of Freda and Tamas also appears on the side of a taxi, as the charity has taken over five taxis in the Edinburgh area for the campaign.
Craig Spalding, chief executive of Sight Scotland, said: “Our new campaign message is simple: we know that you are more than meets the eye.
“We want people living with sight loss to know that we see them for who they are; they are mothers, writers, musicians, children, avid readers, football players, bingo enthusiasts, people who are living happy and fulfilling lives.
“They may just need a little help sometimes.
“We want to get rid of the negative perceptions surrounding sight loss and change the narrative to what is possible instead of what is not possible. This campaign will look to remove the common misconceptions and look beyond limitations by celebrating both the resilience and achievements of those living with sight loss.”
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Freda, who is 67, lives alone in Musselburgh and is “very house proud”.
She loves her independence and receives no help with the upkeep of her house, and does all her own cooking and cleaning.
She prides herself on her “positivity and confidence”.
Originally from Lanarkshire, Freda’s family moved to the Edinburgh area
when she started at the Royal Blind School at the age of five.
An “independent and positive” person, she moved to her home in Musselburgh about 10 years ago.
Freda, who used to have guide dogs but decided she did not want another dog after giving up the last one when she fell ill, contacted Sight Scotland for help to go out and about, to the shops, for a walk or out for a cup of tea.
READ MORE: Befriender gives Freda ‘life-changing’ support
Sight Scotland organised for one of its volunteer befrienders, Tamas, a 31-year-old Hungarian who moved to Scotland eight years ago, to visit Freda and the pair have built up a “life-changing” friendship.
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