A GROUP set up to support blind people in Abingdon has been rescued from closure.

The Abingdon Macular Group has been a lifeline for people with failing eyesight since it was founded eight years ago.

The club provides a meeting place and a chance to chat over a cup of tea with others who share the condition. Guest speakers also regularly visit.

But when organiser Daphne Baker, 86, decided to step down from her role after four years and other volunteers also left, it looked as if the group, which meets at the Baptist Church Hall in Ock Street, would have to close.

Attempts to find new volunteers had failed, and Mrs Baker wrote to the Oxford Mail for help.

Now a Good Samaritan has stepped forward to save the group after hearing about its plight at an event to attract new members to clubs and societies.

Audrey Samuels, 47, said she wanted to help Abingdon Macular Group after witnessing the effect of the eyesight condition on her late uncle.

She said: “I went along to the clubs and societies day, starting speaking to Daphne, and offered to start helping with admin. I just wanted to get involved with something voluntary which would help people.

“My uncle did suffer macular degeneration, so that was a common factor. He lost a lot of confidence and was scared that he was going to go blind. It really did upset him.”

Mrs Baker said: “We have been facing a difficult time with people about to go away and do different things.

“I’ve been doing it for four years and felt it was the right time to step down.

“Abingdon Macular Group is the only group for blind people in Abingdon and for people in that situation it is a huge help.

“When you don’t have eyesight it can cut you off from so much of the world and it’s nice to have someone else who you can chat to and understand what it’s like.”

Frank Shearman, 84, from Wantage, is one of 20 members who attend the regular meetings.

He first noticed his sight deteriorating eight years ago when his GP recommended he go to a specialist clinic, which identified the condition.

He said: “It is a chance to meet people that suffer the same as I did. Quite a lot of them are far worse.

“I have been told I shall not go blind, but my finer sight has got worse. I am one of the lucky ones.

“We do not discuss what we have got to any extent, but the different ways of handling it and different things we can buy to help.”