A few years ago I signed up to sponsor a guide dog.  Yesterday I was delighted to receive an update through the post telling me that “Spirit”, a yellow Labrador, now a two years old, had completed his final stages of dog training.  Not only that but now as a fully-fledged guide dog Spirit has completed the process of partnership training and was now settling in with his new owner.  I cannot tell you how happy this made me feel as I had played a very small part in this process.

It gets better:  the other highlight of my day was with the information about Spirit, there was another small envelope, which when I opened, introduced me to my new puppy, Marley, a black Labrador bundle of joy who will be starting the guide dog training programme.  If you’d like to see Marley please visit facebook.com/groups/puppy.Marley

So, if you are wondering what to buy for the person who has everything this Christmas, sponsor a puppy and give someone the gift of sight.  Almost two million people in the UK are living with sight loss that has a significant impact on their daily lives.  Of those, around 180,000 rarely leave their homes alone and lead a lonely, isolated life. 

For more information visit: guidedogs.org.uk