An inspirational blind woman who has tirelessly campaigned for the betterment of those with sight loss has been bestowed with an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours.
Hazel McFarlane, from Troon, was made an MBE for charitable services to people with sight loss in the first birthday salutes awarded on behalf of King Charles, following his coronation last month.
Hazel, a development officer with Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), has long campaigned for better services and support for the blind and those diagnosed with sight-loss.
The 57-year-old, who was voted one of the UK’s most 100 influential disabled people in 2019, said she couldn’t believe the news when she found out and nearly missed the deadline to respond to accept the prestigious title.
She told Ayrshire Live: “I was really delighted and actually quite emotional about it.
“I couldn’t believe it, I was really blown away.
“I got a letter and I’ve got a device which I can read mail with but I hadn’t used it and some mail had piled up.
“I said to one of my friends ‘would you mind reading some of this with me?’ She was reading it and I said ‘oh I think I’ve just been nominated’, and she said ‘no, no, you’re getting this!’
“And actually we’d read it the day before the deadline to respond, so we’d read it on May 18 and the deadline to respond to accept it was the 19th.
“So I was so thankful that we’d read it and I was able to accept it.”
Hazel encountered total sight loss in 2007 and found receiving the news in a busy eye clinic environment incredibly difficult.
Her experience led her to developing a project proposal to establish a Vision Support Service across Ayrshire and Arran.
She gained the support of Vision Impairment Ayrshire and successfully gained funding from RNIB for this first, patient-led initiative. Such was the success of the initiative, the RNIB rolled out the Eye Clinic Support service model throughout the UK.
A keen runner, Hazel is president of Troon Tortoises, a guided running club, and has ran the London Marathon, raising over £8,000 on behalf of British Blind Sports.
She made history in 2013 when she became the first blind runner to complete the Glasgow to Edinburgh double marathon- completing the gruelling 56 mile run in 11 hours and eight minutes and raising £2,500 for Eye Clinic Support Service.
She has also worked with the Scottish Government to inform legislation affecting those with sensory impairment.
Speaking of all her endeavours to better those with sight loss, she said: “You don’t think about it at the time, you’re just working away.
“When they [honours committee] actually read it all back I was like ‘oh my goodness, I’d forgotten a lot of that’.”
Hazel is the daughter of the late politician Nan McFarlane, who passed away in April last year, and who spent many years as a campaigning councillor in Troon.
Hazel added: “Mum was a staunch republican but I think she would’ve been quite proud but would’ve kept that quiet, but I think my dad would’ve been really pleased.”
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