THE Scottish Centre for Personal Safety has been shortlisted for a prestigious award.

They have been given the nod as recognition of their work in developing a course that has been designed specifically to promote confidence and independence for visually impaired people going out in public.

The Ardrossan-based centre has been highlighted in the Team of the Year category, one of the See Differently Awards, run by sight loss charity RNIB.

This seeks to recognise a team that has made a significant contribution to improving the lives of people who are blind or partially sighted.

The winners of the prizes will be revealed at an awards ceremony in London on Tuesday, November 26.

Founded in 1997, the centre delivers free personal safety and practical self-defence training to a wide range of groups.

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.

Since 2017, the team have trained over 350 blind and visually impaired people.

Alan Bell, volunteer manager, said: “I’m delighted that the team has reached the final of this prestigious national award.

“It’s amazing to receive feedback from blind and partially sighted people who say that the course helped to reduce anxiety levels and fears about crime and empower them to lead richer and more fulfilling lives within their communities.

“Despite having only 10 volunteer instructors, including two registered blind instructors and one deafblind instructor, our charity continues to punch above its weight and is an inspiration to us all.”