A SUPPORT group has celebrated its fifth birthday.

The Macular Society's Weymouth peer group welcomed Richard Drax, Conservative prospective Parliamentary candidate for South Dorset, as a guest at the celebrations, held at Weymouth Angling Club.

Members attending the party included Maley Abbott, who celebrated her 90th birthday last July by swimming 250 metres in the Weymouth Bay Holiday Park pool, raising £3,000 for the society.

Mrs Abbot, from Weymouth, took the plunge and did a sponsored swim to mark her big day.

She asked family and friends

to sponsor her instead of buy-

ing her presents.

Mrs Abbott, who suffers from macular degeneration – a disease which affects the central vision – organised the fundraiser in aid of the support group, which has been a great help to her over the years.

While local peer groups are run by volunteers, who are the experts in living with macular disease, the society also runs a helpline, befriending and counselling services, training courses and fundraises for research. and better care into macular disease. It has 15,000 members nationally.

Mr Drax said: “We are all living longer, so the number of people affected by macular disease is increasing. This is an admirable group coping with what is fast becoming a modern plague. Their resilience and mutual support is inspiring – and with members like Maley, they prove that neither age nor disability should ever be a barrier to enjoying life to the full.”