Here is a letter from Judy Sarssam, who is both our chairman and also one of our visually impaired listeners:

“It is with delight and admiration that I eagerly await the arrival of the postman and my copy of the EETN after the many weeks of enforced silence.

Delight in anticipation of the stimulating news, articles and podcasts. Admiration for the emergency team who have managed to re-start production of the EETN.

It has taken determination, skill and the slight lifting of lockdown which enables short car journeys now.

A huge thank you to Richard for his technical prowess; he is downloading from Dropbox, making a master memory stick and then using two computers duplicating it.

A huge thanks to Julie who has coordinated the other Editors, Julia and Tricia plus Jan, learning how to record and then upload the recordings onto Dropbox. A big thank you to them all.

Heather deserves accolades too as she visited Swail House, which remains in complete lockdown; with the help of management there she was able to collect the spare pouches and memory sticks and has generously taken on the task of filling the pouches and posting them.

What a brilliant team of volunteers whose dedication cannot be praised too much.

So the Epsom and Ewell Talking Newspaper is once more serving the visually impaired members of the community.

The system of returning the pouches and their contents smoothly rely on the postal service at present as the original returns are somewhere hiding in the closed Epsom Sorting Office. Our post has been somewhat spasmodic lately.

Along with  our other VIP listeners I look forward to one precious indication that normal service can be resumed now even if it not weekly until the studio at Swail House becomes available once more.

Gratitude flows also to Jane for her fascinating choice of podcasts and to Ian for his “What’s On” section.

We are hoping that Volunteers and Listeners alike with send in their “lockdown” achievements, adventures and experiences to share on future TNs and on the website.

Best wishes to all in the EETN family and friends,

Judy”

We are very pleased to say that the Epsom and Ewell Talking Newspaper was produced and distributed on 21st May – the first issue since the Covid-19 restrictions were imposed. You can listen to the News section in the next post, below.

We are still not able to access our studio (this is for the protection of our volunteers and especially our neighbours) so this edition was recorded by volunteers at home using handheld recorders, tablets and computers. The various parts were transmitted over the internet to another volunteer who assembled them and produced the memory sticks. They were then packed into envelopes and taken to the Post Office.

As a result of this process, the quality of the recording is not up to our usual standard but we hope that it is better than nothing! We will continue to work over the weeks to get the standard as high as we can given the circumstances.

Unfortunately, we are not at present able to visit new listeners in their homes to provide them with machines on which to play our memory sticks. However, do let us know if you wish to join our mailing list and we will keep your details on file. If you already have the means to play a usb memory stick, please click on the “Subscribe” link below, so we can add you to the distribution list immediately.

Our next edition is scheduled for 11th June.

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During the coronavirus outbreak many people are unable to do their grocery shopping. One of the ways the most vunerable are being supported is in the distribution of food boxes. As part of the relief effort for Surrey, The Spectrum at Guildford as a leisure centre has been repurposed as a Food Hub. Find out who gets a food box and where it comes from.