Living Paintings Chief Executive awarded OBE in King’s Birthday Honours List

Camilla Oldland, the longstanding CEO of Living Paintings, is to receive an OBE in recognition of her decades of work supporting blind and visually impaired people and communities across the UK.

For 35 years, Living Paintings has been creating innovative tactile-audio experiences for blind people of all ages, and is most famous for their hand-made accessible adaptions of the world’s best-loved picture books for children; lent to families and schools for free from their Berkshire postal library.

Camilla joined the charity when it was founded in 1989 and became its Chief Executive the following year. Under her leadership, the charity has become a leader within the accessibility field – now supporting over 5,000 blind and visually impaired people of all ages; many of whom have used the service throughout their lives.

Camilla says:

“To say I am honoured is a huge understatement. I had absolutely no idea and am quite overwhelmed by this recognition.

Every day, we receive incredibly heartwarming comments from our beneficiaries that highlight the very positive impact of our work. I’m reminded daily what a difference our accessible Touch to See books and images have on the lives of so many. To be awarded an OBE is the icing on the cake.

Most of all, I’m proud of the staff team and volunteers at Living Paintings who make everything possible. I may lead the charity, but everything we do is a huge group effort. This is an award for every single one of us.”

Camilla’s OBE follows a monumental year for Living Paintings, who worked closely with the Royal Households and Lambeth Palace to create a range of accessible resources that enabled blind and visually impaired children and young people to engage with the visual spectacle of The Coronation of King Charles through touch and sound. These special gifts were made available for free to all blind children and young people in the UK – with the charity receiving personal thanks from The King and Queen.