Nationwide App – ready to help us move out of Lockdown

SEE around Britain, a disabled-run charity based in Carmarthenshire which provides photographs and access details for over 2000 local venues in Wales (including 287 in Carmarthenshire and 239 in Pembrokeshire) stands ready to help people as we move safely out of lockdown through its free to download app and fully inclusive multilingual website, https://seearoundbritain.com/about-us

See Around Britain is looking for volunteers to help download a huge backlog of survey photos throughout Wales so that able bodied and those with disabilities can access the latest information on venues.

Its extensive use of photographs for a vast range of types of venue (please see  https://seearoundbritain.com/how-to-use-this-website ) shows EXACTLY what to expect when visiting them, and can include their Covid arrangements for social distancing (e.g. schools, post offices, garden centres and libraries, including their online provision).  This will give citizens the confidence and reassurance that they are safe to visit.  In short, Seeing is Believing and a photograph saves a thousand words. It also uses GPS to enable the user to locate venues near them wherever they are.

The app and website are aimed at everybody, the resident and tourist, and also those with special needs.  It is fully interactive, enabling venue owners to upload photographs and videos to show their current provision and Covid measures.

Volunteers of all ages can participate on line to help the charity writing venue descriptions for its huge backlog of venue photos waiting to be uploaded to the website, or contributing to the charity’s social media platforms to help raise its profile, or when able to provide photo and video surveys of new venues.  So volunteers can have an interesting and meaningful activity during the Lockdown, with the satisfaction that their efforts will be published on the website which provides a vital information bank particularly for vulnerable and older citizens.

Its Founder Trustee, Marg McNiel, is one himself.  His survey work has been arduous as he was born with a mobility impairment and since 1992 he has had ME, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, a neurological and muscular disease that affects all his body systems so he is like an ‘environmental canary’ and this informs his coverage of conditions at each venue. It also gives him only 4 hours sleep at night leaving him each day feeling ‘constantly jetlagged’.

He is an Irish citizen and his unusual first name Marg or Margr is Norse as his parents families are from County Cork and the Hebrides.

He has spent a lifetime in community and Heritage education travelling throughout Europe on a shoestring doing his survey work without any public funding, and has taken over 500,000 photos to help others with what to expect when they travel to a new venue.  His aim is to give skeleton coverage for more people to add to.  It can include everyday things like pharmacies, clinics, hospitals, libraries, post offices and other shops.  It has been a Herculean task first photographing in black-and-white in the 1950s and 60s, and then updating with colour photographs, before replacing these with a comprehensive amount of digital photographs.

In 1974 he contracted a rare vomiting and respiratory virus in Europe, which developed into life-threatening acute double pneumonia, which left him with post viral fatigue for over a year.  When the Covid 19 virus occurred earlier this year, he was already pushing himself beyond limits keeping the survey of Ireland updated, with the assistance of a travelling companion.

During the Lockdown many people have volunteered to help the charity in a variety of roles. If you are interested in volunteering with See Around Britain please visit their website for further information https://seearoundbritain.com/about-us

For further information please contact ‘SAB Support’ support@seearoundbritain.com