Seaford resident, Ray Hazan was made an Officer Of the Order of the British Empire for services to Blind Ex-Service Men and Women in the New Year's Honours List.

Mr Hazan said he knew about the award before it was announced publicly.

He said: “Of course the difficult thing about it was that I knew about it six weeks ago and I couldn't even tell my family.”

Mr Hazan was born in Cheshire in 1945 and between 1953 and 1958 he went to school at Tyttenhanger Lodge, which used to be at the top of Sutton Avenue in Seaford before going on to Charterhouse School and then the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.

In 1973, while serving in Northern Ireland, a parcel he was holding exploded causing him to lose one eye and all the sight from the other.

He also lost his right hand and most of his hearing the the blast.

It was soon after that he was introduced to St Dunstan's, the charity that supports blind and visually impaired ex-service people, which has one of its training centres in Ovingdean, Brighton.

In 1977 he was offered a job in their public relations department in London, later becoming editor of their in-house magazine. In 2004 he was made President of the organisation.

I first met Ray in 2002 at the London offices of St Dunstan's. I found him charming, gracious, very kind and more concerned about the welfare of others than for himself.

Although employed full time at St Dunstan's he also ran a computer club for other blind and visually impaired people and, up until a couple of years ago, was an active participant in St Dunstan's skiing events.

Ray returned to Seaford in 2011 with his wife, Robbie.

Although now retired he is still very active as president of St Dunstan's and he continues to give talks on blindness and visual impairment.