The Blesma Connects app is helping one isolated Member feel less alone during the COVID-19 lockdown…

Charles ‘Pete’ Helliwell, who only joined the Association two years ago, has spent the last few weeks connecting with the many Blesma friends he has already made through the app’s chat function.

“I have made quite a few friends on various Blesma events, and now I’m using the app to catch up with them,” said Pete, who served with the REME in the Middle East Land Forces in the Suez Canal Zone, and lost his left arm below the elbow in a mining machine accident in 1957.

“Television is too depressing right now so every morning, while I’m having my cornflakes, I check the app to see if there are any updates from Blesma or if I have received any new messages. I have even made new friends through the app! I’m learning a lot about other Members’ lives and their disabilities, and they are finding out about mine.”

While the 86 year old was self-isolating alone in his home in South Yorkshire, Outreach Officer Adele Miller encouraged Pete to pick up an iPad for the first time. He agreed, and through Blesma’s Digital Inclusion Programme, he became the first Member to be given an iPad to allow him to connect with other Members, as well as with his friends and family.

He has already learned how to send photographs through the app’s chat function, so he and fellow Member Martin Brummitt can share their gardening photographs.

“I am still in the learning stages and am teaching myself how to use the tablet, but I am confident that I’ll take to it,” Pete said. “My grandson Jamie – as well as Blesma – help me when I get stuck.”