THE fund-raising efforts of a group of women have provided a greater quality of life for many residents in the Grange-over-Sands area.

The Grange Townswomen's Guild has managed to raise enough money to buy a Clear View electronic magnifier machine for Grange Library.

The equipment will allow visually impaired people to read and write with greater ease as it magnifies documents to the required strength and displays them on a large television-style screen.

Community Champions, Cumbria County Council's Neighbourhood Forum, The Furness Building Society, residents of Hampsfell Grange and Grayrigge Court and Mr and Mrs Woodburn all provided funding and several anonymous members of the public gave donations to help raise money for the project.

The suppliers, Low Vision Supplies of Billingham, also provided a discount from the equipment's original price of £1,895.

Grange Townswomen's Guild chair Margaret McDuff believes that the equipment will make a huge' difference to many local residents.

"It will maintain a lot of people's privacy because it is not very nice having to ask neighbours to read things for you. This can make people feel depressed and isolated.

"It will also help a lot of people to get out of the house and socialise more when they come down to the library," she said.

"There are a lot of retired people living in Grange and many suffer from some kind of visual impairment," she added.

Ann Lynch, Library Assistant at Grange Library believes it will be a fantastic' benefit to visually impaired people.

"The library is fairly central so people will be able to get to it easily enough. We would like to thank Ms McDuff for her fundraising efforts," she added.