A BLIND veteran is set to host a baking session to encourage those with sight loss to cook.

Penny Melville-Brown OBE, from Fareham will be hosting a free baking session on Monday 17 May to encourage others with sight loss to adapt their cookery skills.

Penny, who served in the Royal Navy for 22 years was selected as one of the three winners of the Holman Prize in 2017, an award given by the San Francisco ‘Lighthouse’ organisation, winning a $25,000 prize to fulfil a life ambition.

The money allowed her to take her baking project, Baking Blind, on a global tour across six continents.

She said: “Baking is a universal language with the power to bring us all together. During lockdown, I have hosted three other online baking sessions; cake, bread and biscuits. This month we’ll be making pork pies."

During her time in service, Penny travelled around the world working for NATO, she also worked on the Navy’s Home Defence and War Planning team.

After becoming the first woman naval barrister, her deteriorating eyesight meant she was medically discharged in 1999.

Now the veteran says: “I want to help other disabled people and demonstrate to them what they can do. You just have to do things differently, it’s not that you can’t do them.

"During the live baking session, I’ll show different techniques and those on the call and viewers can interact and ask questions."

Penny is encouraging others who are visually impaired or blind to join her on World Baking Day.

To sign up, go to: https://bit.ly/2SMOugB