The team running an Ardrossan charity has been awarded for the special way it supports people with sight loss.

The Scottish Centre for Personal Safety (SCPS), Princes Street, has won a Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) See Differently Award in recognition of its work.

In particular, the SCPS was recognised for developing a course designed specifically to promote confidence and independence for visually impaired people going out in public.

Alan Bell, volunteer manager of the SCPS, said: “We are very shocked. The standard of finalists in the awards is amazing so we are delighted to have won.”

The organisation won the Team of the Year Award. Over the past two years, they have trained over 450 blind and partially sighted individuals. Their work has been recognised by numerous organisations and they have won the Pioneering Project Awards at the Scottish Charity Awards 2019, Diversity in the Third Sector Award 2018 and the Disability Award at the Charity Awards 2019.

Founded in 1997, the organisation delivers free personal safety and practical self-defence training to a wide range of groups, and after discovering that blind and partially sighted people are more than twice as likely to be attacked than sighted people, they created a course to empower blind and partially sighted individuals. RNIB CEO Matt Stringer said: “I warmly congratulate all on their success.”