FRED Pitt is not letting failing eyesight and old age stop him from helping a good cause.

Fred, of Mount Pleasant, Simister, may be 82, but the fact that his eyesight is very bad and the small matter of a stroke four years ago, hasn't stopped him from knitting his first blanket for Oxfam.

And, as he says: "It won't stop me knitting more."

Fred, described by his daughter Judith as "a very nice person who is community minded and just a helpful chap," learned to knit many years ago. "I haven't done it for a while but I was thinking of something to do and thought that I could knit blankets," he said. "I have heard that Oxfam give the blankets away to the needy and it's quite easy to do even if you can't see very well."

He put a request for wool oddments in the St Margaret's and St George's Church magazine and was inundated with donations. Now Fred is hoping that his first blanket will be on its way to help keep a Kosovo refugee warm.

"It's such a small thing for us, but it must mean so much to those poor unfortunate people," he said. "Those of us who are lucky enough to have a home and clothes on our back really have no choice but to do something to help."

Mr Ian Shears, Oxfam's North Western district manager, who lives in Whitefield, called at Fred's home to collect the blanket as it was Fred's first contribution (pictured).

"Fred's a real character with a heart of gold," commented Mr Shears. Anyone with donations should take them to the Oxfam shop in Bury New Road, Prestwich.

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