Visitors to Southampton Boat Show this week will find it difficult to miss Jubilee Sailing Trust’s exclusive Eye Patch Day incentive, which is being promoted throughout the show in an effort to help raise funds for the Jubilee Sailing Trust charity.

Eye Patch day takes place on 21 October and all you need to do to help raise funds for the trust is donate £1. You’ll then be given a specially designed, exclusive eye patch and transfer tattoo to be worn to mark anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.

This charity, which aims to promote the integration of people of all physical abilities through the challenge and adventure of tall ship sailing, owns and operates two tall ships -Lord NelsonandTenacious- which have been purposely designed and built to enable a crew with mixed physical abilities to sail side by side on equal terms.

Simon Paine, Campaign Director, commented whilst chatting at today’s show: “This was the perfect opportunity for us to promote our charity, with this year being 200 years since Nelson died at the Battle of Trafalgar and one of our ships being named after Nelson – the UK’s most famous disabled sailor. We’ve chosen Eye Patch day – I know some will say that Nelson didn’t wear an eye patch, but why let history get in the way of a good story – arm sling day just doesn’t have the same ring to it! We are pleased to have Ellen MacArthur supporting the appeal, and with having her reinforcement about her experiences with her life at sea written on the back of the eye patch cards.”

Paine says that the JST’s aim is to raise £200,000 between now and 21 October, which will go a long way to supporting the two ships, which cost £1.7 million to run a year.

Although eye patches are currently mainly only available in the south, in HSBC banks and Channel Islands supermarkets, log onto www.eyepatchday.com for details about making donations. You can also donate £1 to the charity by texting the word “patch’ to 86100.