A CAMPAIGNING housewife who won support from bosses at Fawley Refinery has been presented with a special award after being traced through an appeal in the Daily Echo.

Kerryann Brierley contacted top brass at Esso Petroleum over the instructions that were sent out to people living near the huge petro-che-mical complex.

She pointed out that people suffering from partial vision or blindness had difficulty in reading the laminated cards telling them what the various alarms meant and when they would be tested.

Kerryann, 29, recently moved with husband Justin, sons Aaron, 10, and Grant eight, and daughter Gabrielle, six, from Forest Edge at Fawley to Highlands Way at Hythe.

At about the same time, EssoExxonMobil management had taken advice from the Royal National Institute for the Blind and had come up with a new format to make things easier.

But when they tried to contact her at her previous address to tell her they were taking up her idea, with new special cards and instructions as well as an 0800 information line for the visually-impaired, refinery staff drew a blank.

They also wanted to present Kerryann with a special Respon-sible Care Award given to the refinery by an international safety organisation.

So an appeal was published in the Daily Echo and the calls began rolling in from friends to tell Kerryann.

"I was so pleased they had taken the trouble to do something about it and now I hope the idea will be taken up by all the other similar places around the country," she said.

As well as receiving the trophy, Kerryann was asked to nominate a charity of her choice to receive £250.

She chose Guide Dogs for the Blind and that decision was welcomed by Nigel Burt of Fawley Public Affairs. He said: "Through the safety schemes here, we give thousands of pounds to charity every year and Guide Dogs for the Blind is one which has been nominated by our staff in the past.

"We are pleased to have been able to make things a little easier for people with visual impairments and I can see no reason why it will not be taken up by other large companies."

The information number for visually-impaired people is 0800 1693597. It has already taken 200 calls.