Features / McCarthy and Stone
‘I love the sheer thrill of talking to people on a massive scale’
A remarkable local man has been announced as a finalist in the McCarthy and Stone Inspirational Generation Award, after being nominated by his wife. Tony Blake, 75, who lives in Chiswick Village, has spent the past six years volunteering with Avon Talking Magazine, a charity that provides a free monthly magazine and newspaper for visually impaired people across the South West to listen to.
After being approached by other magazine volunteers due to having a good voice, Tony reads articles from different news sources and also writes and records the links to hold all the articles together. “I have all of the notes of the scripts on file so I don’t use the same jokes again,” laughs Tony, who not only does charitable work for Avon Talking Magazine, but has also raised money for other worthwhile causes.
“Last year I shaved my whiskers off and regrew them for Prostate Cancer UK, and Valerie is also a great fundraiser. I belong to a flying club and an MG car club, and I hand out flyers and help organise the events when we do them. They don’t always raise money for charity but I think they make a lot of people happy.”
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It is clear that Tony enjoys the work that he does for the visually impaired: “I love the sheer thrill of talking to people on a massive scale. The buzz I get personally is that I love talking to people, and doing it for people who’ve got problems with their sight – what’s wrong with that? I’m terribly short-sighted, so I have an inkling of what it’s like. I’ve got sympathy with it.”
Tony volunteers with Avon Talking Magazine, which provides audio newspapers and magazines to the visually impaired
After finding out that his wife, Valerie had nominated him for the Inspirational Generation Award in January 2018, Tony says he was honoured to be listed alongside other inspirational people. “To be honest there are people around here who do a lot more, at least it feels like it, so I feel quite humbled that I’m on there,” Tony says. “I couldn’t feel anything else but proud, and equally humbled because what I’ve done, others have done more.”
However, Valerie, 73, believes her husband’s nomination is well-deserved and has nothing but praise for his achievements. “He was sceptical about it at first but I said ‘you do an awful lot, why not?’,” she says. “I’m not really allowed to boast about my husband but I just think he’s brilliant. The only thing I can say is that considering he’s 76 next January, I think he’s a pretty young man, and he’s very reliable. He’s lovely.”
The judging of the competition is already underway, and one national winner along with nine regional winners will be selected by a panel of judges later this month, including TV personality Gloria Hunniford.
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