Jeremy Vine takes part in 2,000th recording by talking newspaper service for blind in Epsom and Ewell

Epsom and Ewell Talking Newspaper for the Blind recorded the milestone programme yesterday and memory sticks are being posted to its 130 or so listeners. The organisation is celebrating its 40th anniversary is this year.

The broadcast included messages from cricket legend Phil Tufnell, the Mayor of Epsom and Ewell, MP Chris Grayling, snooker player Jimmy White and Epsom market trader Dave.

News editor Jan Collier said: "Jeremy Vine went to Lynton Prep as a child and Epsom College. I chose people to invite who were associated with the area."

The recording also featured news from the Epsom Guardian across the decades as well as articles from magazines and the service’s trademark jokes.

Gwyneth Smith, 84, who wrote a song for the recording, started volunteering nearly 30 years ago after her husband had a stroke and she retired from teaching.

Gwyneth Smith, Angela Sargent and magazine editor Ian Tennent

Ms Smith, from Stones Road, Epsom, said: "I wanted to do something when he was being looked after. I have always liked amateur dramatics.

"It was an opportunity, you felt a bit like a disc jockey. The bigger picture is it is a service, something we can do for other people."

In the early days, the volunteers used tapes and took it in turns to read into one little microphone. She said: "We had one or two gentlemen who so liked their own voices it was hard to get a turn.

"We found with the old type of recording there was a bit of a gap so we started putting jokes in until the tapes ran out."

Jeremy Vine

When she first joined, the group was based at Age Concern in the Parade, Epsom, and it later moved to its current location at Swail House in Ashley Avenue.

But she said: "We didn’t have a lovely studio like this. We were in a corridor near the food. They did dinners in those days and you could smell them."

Senior news editor Angela Sargent, 74, whose blind mother was a resident at Swail House, met a talking newspaper volunteer while helping out at their summer fete.

Ms Sargent, who lives off Kingston Road in Ewell, said: "I said how much my mother enjoyed listening to it and said ‘do you ever need volunteers?’ "She said ‘we’re always looking for volunteers, why don’t you come along on Thursday?’ And here I still am."

There have been huge technological advances since the service's very first broadcast 40 years ago. Ms Sargent said: "Things are changing so rapidly but we plan to keep going for another thousand."

The talking newspaper, which has about 30 volunteers, wants to reach out anybody who is blind or has difficulty reading.

A historic photo of a recording session

To sign up for a free weekly memory stick please call 01372 721519 and leave a message on the studio voicemail.