THE WORK of a valued service for blind and partially-sighted people is being celebrated this week.

The Portland-based South West Dorset Talking Newspaper is hoping to use the national Talking Newspaper Week to draw attention to the service it provides and recruit more volunteers to bolster its efforts.

The group was founded by Sue Darler and the late Lindy Meikle, who started out recording tapes of local news in their own homes and distributing them to blind and partially-sighted residents in the area.

The group recently celebrated its 20th anniversary at the Wellworthy Sports and Social Club and now distributes more than 300 tapes and CDs.

A team of 70 volunteers meets every Wednesday to help read, edit and record news from local papers including the Dorset Echo and Bridport News as well as magazine-style pieces.

Mrs Darler said: "We are trying to highlight the work we do and advertise the fact we need younger people to help, particularly people with computer skills.

"We have a number of older people who help out every week but its getting quite technical now and it's all done on computer."

The South West Dorset Talking Newspaper is a charitable organisation that relies on the help of volunteers and donations to keep the service running.

Mrs Darler said: "We have stalls on the seafront and go out collecting at Morrisons. We balance the books every year so what comes in goes out and we are never in debt.

"We were sending out just a handful of tapes in the beginning but now we are sending out 300. It is a valuable service and we provide it 51 weeks of the year.

"People come to rely on it and one woman said it was like having a friend coming through the door."

The talking newspaper currently operates out of a studio in the basement of Portland Town Council's offices and, with the site due to be redeveloped next year, they group has been promised brand-new offices in the new building.

Anyone interested in volunteering should come down to the studio on a Wednesday morning or call 01305 861282.

The group is also keen to hear from schools who would be interested in getting their students to provide articles for the magazine section of the tapes.