On May 17 a group of four volunteers and their friends, making a total of 12 in all, set out to complete a 10-mile sponsored walk organised by Guildford Rotary Club.

They were raising funds for Let’s Read, a Woking-based charity set up in 2008 to improve literacy of young people in the borough.

The weather was ideal for walking: dry and overcast and not too warm!

The route started and finished at Shalford Meadow following the Wey Navigation canal for a short distance before heading into the countryside, skirting St Martha’s Hill and offering beautiful views over the Surrey Hills landscape.

To date, the volunteers have raised £1,145 (before gift aid) for the charity, a figure which is likely to be substantially increased by “matched funding” for one of the party.

Let’s Read currently works with five primary schools in Woking, providing weekly one-to-one tutoring to small groups of Year 2 pupils to improve reading ability, comprehension, and confidence.

In addition, all pupils in Year 2 at 14 schools in Woking receive a gifted book of their choice at the end of each term.

Let’s Read will be at Pyrford Horticultural Society’s Annual Show on Saturday, 11 July with a book sale and information stall.

If you would like further information or to donate you can visit the website www.letsread.co.uk.

On behalf of Let’s Read

Alan Milburn's blunt honesty about the scale of the problem for young people seeking work is to be welcomed.

What's vital is that the experiences of groups who are relatively small in number but high in need are not lost in the big picture presented.

Young people with vision impairment are twice as likely not to be in education, employment or training as their sighted peers.

Yet what I see in so many young people with vision impairment is a determination and resilience that employers should be eager to harness.

We know that these young people often aren't getting the right level of support at school or college, because there are too few specialist teachers.

That can set them back and knock their confidence even before they start looking for work. And then graduate recruitment schemes or apprenticeships often don't think about accessibility in their recruitment processes.

On top of that, too many employers hold outdated ideas about what someone with sight loss is capable of with the right technology and workplace support.

What we need is concerted action to tackle the misconceptions held by employers and at the same time get the right support to young people with vision impairment, who deserve to thrive as much as anyone else.

Anna Tylor,

Chair of Trustees at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)