Press Office Headlines

Some of the recent successes of Guide Dogs’ PR Team include:

CIPR Excellence Award 2009 “Best campaign £10k and under” – our campaign around Mahomed-Abraar Khatri and Vargo, the first guide dog to enter a mosque after a historic fatwa was issued, won a prestigious PR award. We faced competition from high profile organisations and PR agencies but the judges praised the sensitive handling of the issues and the amount of national and international media coverage.

Seven Magnificent Marathons - when guide dog owner Dave Heeley ran seven marathons, on seven continents, in seven days it resulted in Guide Dogs most successful ever media campaign. Notable pieces featured on the News at Ten, Channel Four News, CNN, Channel Five News, BBC News 24, Sky Sports, This Morning, Eye Witness News USA, Channel 12 and 7 Australia, The Independent, The Telegraph as well The Times, The Guardian, Daily Mail, Mirror, Express, the Sun and many more.

The search for Guide Dog of the Year in 2007 was launched by BBC Breakfast and the programme reported on the progress of the awards. Millions of viewers saw films of the three inspirational stories from which they voted for their winner. The PR campaign was awarded a CIPR Pride award in 2008.

Blue Peter presenter Andy Akinwolere became the first presenter since 1991 to be a guide dog puppy walker. Millions of viewers watched him socialise guide dog pup Magic on the CBBC ONE programme.

We are constantly campaigning on behalf of blind and partially sighted people; the PR Team has supported the charity’s campaigns and policy team in successfully persuading airlines, ferry operators and Eurostar to allow guide dog owners to travel under the Pet Passport scheme.