I'm an Editor, get me out of here

I AM writing this in the stark surroundings of cell number 2 at Ulverston Police Station.
Only four bare walls, a stainless-steel toilet (no seat or lid, just an open bowl), and a couple of stained blue plastic mattresses for company.
Hail hitting the harsh grill is the only sound which breaks the silence.
That and the occasional slam of the hatch on the prison door as a warder checks I’m still here.
As my ears get attuned, I hear a drone of traffic outside.
But, crucially, I can’t see any form of life. No autumn trees, no green fields, no family or friends. Nothing.
That’s when it hits me. If you think losing your freedom is bad, imagine what it would be like to lose your sight. That’s why I’m here. To raise money for Barrow & Districts Society For The Blind. I’m the lucky one. I have my sight, and a mobile phone (the latter not allowed to usual suspects within these four walls).
At last a voice on the other end of the phone. Not friendly though, that would be asking too much, I was asking for cash in these troubled economic times after all, what did I expect?
“You’ve done it the wrong way round. I’d have paid double to keep you in!”
That was my own flesh and blood. My brother starting what would become a common theme among (so-called!) friends, family, colleagues and every business associate whose number I had in my mobile or contacts book.
It makes you think long and hard about who your friends really are. ‘Can I really ring someone for the first time in three years and ask them for money?’, went round my head more than once.
But then in Children in Need week, the spirit of Wogan and Co took over and I caught the charity phone call bug.
The Bay helped my cause big time with a prison interview broadcast across the airwaves, that and a generous pledge from the radio team gave me a major emotional, and financial, boost. Schools, like Burlington Primary at Kirkby, rallied to the cause. As did sporting clubs, Raiders boss Des Johnston putting his hand in his pocket for a good cause.
And as we all know behind any even half-decent bloke there’s an even better woman. So while I was dealing in £50s, £20s, and £10s in prison, back at the office editorial administrator Sheila Atkinson was drumming up hundreds in support. Generous donations from the business community, including BAE and Furness Enterprise, swelled the coffers.
By noon, three hours since I was ‘arrested’ and handcuffed (by the way those things really hurt!), I had the necessary £500 to be set free, raising £855 in total.
It wasn’t Alcatraz or Auschwitz (on this of all days, being 11/11, we should remember the hell prisoners of war have gone through), but it gave me a taster of what it’s like to do solitary in a cell, to have your freedom taken away. I wouldn’t recommend it.
But far more important than that it gave me the smallest hint of how isolated you feel not to be able to see human life or nature’s sights.
For that reason, I’m going to do my Bob Geldof/Terry Wogan bit and ask you, plead with you, beg you, to donate today – give to Barrow & Districts Society For The Blind and help those in real need.
To donate contact W. Proctor, company secretary Barrow & Districts Society For The Blind Ltd, 67/69 Cavendish Street, Barrow-In-Furness, Cumbria, LA14 1QD or phone: (01229) 820698.