MP for North West Hampshire, Sir George Young, has paid a visit to the new national office of the Macular Disease Society in Bridge Street, Andover.
The charity is a membership society with 12,000 members who have a sight impairment condition called macular degeneration, which damages the central vision.
The society provides support to its members through a helpline, its magazine Sideview, a national network of self-help support groups, a counselling service and conferences.
Chief executive Tom Brembridge, of Longparish, said that the society is also well respected as the largest patient group for the visually impaired and is influential in lobbying for new treatments to be widely available and through promoting research.
Sir George met the chairman Gwyn Dickinson who travelled from Devon for the day and Tom Wilson of Upper Clatford, the honorary treasurer.
He also met Joan Philpott of Kimpton, who runs the helpline, Anne Edwardes Jones of Barton Stacey, the office manager who is blind in one eye and Sharon Morell of Upper Chute whose first two children were born blind, who understand sight impairment problems.
The society's helpine number is 0845 241 2041.
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