My Dad has PSP which as you know effects the eye sight. He can now listen to his favourite books again.

[Sky2]

My Dad has PSP and I’m always trying to find things that can make his life easier. He always loved to read books but now his eye sight is not very good due to the PSP he doesn’t read much anymore. I wanted to find something like a portable CD player without head phones that could play audio books, which I did. I want to share this with everyone because it has been a great help to my dad.

RNIB do a talking book service. You pay £20.50 for 3 months (you can pay every 6 months or yearly too) This includes the loan of their DAISY player and story book CDs. It is very easier to use. You can change the tone of the voice and the speed to suit you. If you press stop or take the CD out it knows where you stopped it and it will continue from that spot when you press play or put the CD back in.

You can tell them what kind of books you like to read and which authors you like. They will send you 6 talking books when you first sign up. As soon as you have finished one CD you just send it back in the prepaid envelope and they will send you out the next talking CD. You don’t even need to wear head phones, it has a speaker in the DAISY player its self. My dad loves it and I think he gets through a book a week. I hope this can help others living with PSP. I have put the link below but I would suggest giving them a call because they need to send you some forms to fill in by post. Phone: [phone] rnib.org.uk/livingwithsight...

[SuzieQ]

Hi

Thanks for the information. I know from our experience that listening to stories has helped my hubby to relax. I have to say we have both benefitted from story CD's but we get ours through the local library. We already had a suitable CD player and when I mentioned to the librarian that my hubby's sight is affected by PSP she noted this on her computer system and we are allowed to borrow CD's free of charge. Whichever way others decide to borrow book CD's, it is worth giving it a try and it has certainly helped my hubby to enjoy books again.

Best wishes to you and your dad..................SuzieQ

[Sky2 in reply to SuzieQ]

Hi

Yeah I did think about the library it is a great idea but I wanted a CD player that my dad could use (not the home system) and take around with him ie holiday, out in the garden etc and not always have to listen to it with headphones. I found it hard to get a portable CD player with a built in speaker. Also I like the way dad can speed up the person talking and be able to stop and start where he left off. But I totally agree the library is a good place to get books if you are happy with your player. I would definitely recommend audio CD’s.

Thanks and best wishes to you and your husband.

[barbaracrabb]

My husband enjoyed audio books when he could no longer read.We found a free postal service calibre.org.uk which was excellent.Definitely worth investigating and there are probably more sophisticated options available now.

My husband also endured extreme light sensitivity which only added to the difficulties inflicted by this truly awful disease.

We used to have the curtains drawn a lot of the time and he often used to listen in the dark.There are so many practicalities to deal with,this site only came into being a few months before my husband died ,it must be a godsend as I felt so isolated in the early days after diagnosis

Best wishes to all of you