Mark Pile, a blind veteran from Peasedown St John, marched with other blind veterans to the Cenotaph in London on Remembrance Sunday for Blind Veterans UK.

Mark was part of the contingent representing Blind Veterans UK, which this year celebrates its 100 years of proud service and support to blind and vision-impaired ex-Service men and women.

Mark served in the Territorial Army Light Infantry from 1984 to 1993 in the UK and Gibraltar as a bugler and a driver of Land Rovers, troop carriers and other vehicles. He was born with amblyopia, a hereditary eye condition, but, in 2000, his eyesight abruptly worsened.

Mark says, “I was driving a bus full of kids and I couldn’t determine whether the edge of the road was a kerb or a wall – it was just fading away. I didn’t want an accident on my conscience so I stopped the bus.”

After losing his job and his driving licence, he fell into a deep depression. He says, “I wouldn’t accept my sight loss and, if you don’t accept it, you stop living.”

As Mark began to recover from his depression with the help of his family, he sought help from Blind Veterans UK and was invited with his wife to the charity’s Brighton Centre for a week of rehabilitation and training. He says, “By the Wednesday of that week, I had started to talk to people, which was a good sign. Later, I had the confidence to go to the centre without my wife. Now I’ve been loads of times on my own.”

A keen photographer before losing his sight, Mark now teaches Adobe Photoshop Elements to other blind and vision-impaired veterans at the Brighton Centre. He has also been trained to do picture framing and mounting. He says, “They’ve given me equipment, but it’s the support from staff and the other veterans at the centre that has made the difference for me. You don’t have to pretend. Everyone is in the same boat.”

Mark marched for the second time with other vision-impaired ex-Service men and women supported by Blind Veterans UK as part of the national Remembrance Sunday commemorations on Sunday, 8th November. He was guided by his son, Ben, who has served in the Royal Military Police for four years in Afghanistan and Germany.

He said: “Remembrance is really emotional, for want of a better word, and the support from the public is amazing. I think of friends and everyone else who has lost their life to a conflict.”

Blind Veterans UK (formerly St Dunstan’s) was founded in 1915 and the charity’s initial purpose was to help and support soldiers blinded in World War I. But the organisation has gone on to support more than 35,000 blind veterans and their families, spanning World War II to recent conflicts including Iraq and Afghanistan.

For 100 years, the charity has been providing vital free training, rehabilitation, equipment and emotional support to blind and vision impaired veterans no matter when they served or how they lost their sight.

Visit blindveterans.org.uk to learn more about the charity’s 100 year history and how you can support its vital work today.