Blackpool dolls house has raised funds for charity

The magnificent home in miniature, the ultimate Des Res for dollies, had been viewed 1400 times on NVision charity’s Facebook @nvisionnw account.

Former N-Vision community services worker Mandy Squire, who’s recently downsized her own property, also dropped in to view the house, and said: “It is beautiful. If I had more space, I’d move it in tomorrow.

The house, one of the highlights of the fair, was donated to N-Vision’s charity shop at Highfield Road, South Shore, which celebrated its 21st anniversary earlier this year.

Shop manager Mags Evans said: “A local lady in her sixties said it had been her sister’s project for years. They have kept another one but gave this to the charity. It really is magnificent. We thought of having it as the centrepiece of our Christmas window display, but it’s so big."

The fair itself raised £2159 with a further boost to come from Christmas raffle ticket sales and with £1015 from other raffle income. Add the house sale – and no estate agency fees are involved here – and the grand total comes to just over £3,400.

Finance chief Trina Parkinson said: “We’d set ourselves the target of £4k but this was still a cracker of a Christmas fair.”

Much of the craftwork on sale was created by care workers and residents at the Princess Alexandra Home at the charity’s Bosworth Place, Squires Gate. Base. Several attend Urban Organic CiC’s ‘garden gang’ sessions in the grounds of N-Vision, the Blackpool Fylde and Wyre Society for the Blind and helped craft the wooden reindeer – which proved so popular they almost flew out the building. The event was supported by Beaverbrooks, Complete Catering, Jilly Tropic, G-Line Coaches, Urban Organic and many more provided prizes, stalls and other donations, plus Santa.

It’s been a busy year for N-Vision with a new logo/strategy/chairman of trustees Joseph Bannister to take the charity, established in 1910, into 2020. With legacies down 97 per cent over the last five years, charity chiefs are urging locals to remember N-Vision in their wills, or for donations in lieu of gifts for Christmas or other occasions.

It costs £1092 a day to run the Community Services Department supporting 2080 local visually impaired clients – with 23 per cent funded by voluntary donations. Last year 1577 people accessed the charity’s Low Vision Centre, 997 patients were supported by Eye Clinic Liason officer Linda Sethi and Low Vision workers visited 572 homes during the year to promote independence and combat isolation. In just one month, 166 visually impaired clients attended social groups held across Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre.