Campaigning for Life

This week is Guide Dogs Week and the 80th anniversary of the first British guide dog partnerships. It is more than 40 years since I got my first guide dog and even now my sixth dog, Amanda, gives me the confidence I need to live a full life.

At 71, like everyone else, I want to go out on my own. People don’t realise how vulnerable we feel, but all my guide dogs have helped me feel safe.

Amanda helps me feel confident when I walk down the street or cross roads, she helps me go on bus and train journeys, and visit new places. Without my guide dogs, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to spend the last 40 years campaigning for a better deal for blind and partially sighted people.

I appreciate the lifeline that my guide dog gives me. I lost one eye after contracting measles as a child in the 1940s. As a young woman I built up a career as a cook and enjoyed a full life – dancing, walking and travelling.

Aged 24, I lost my sight on my wedding day. I was shocked and for the next seven years, I hardly left the house alone. I was depressed, isolated, and many of my neighbours didn’t know I existed.

I was delighted when, a few months after my wedding, I discovered I was pregnant with my daughter Jacqueline, who was born in 1964. As she grew I wanted to do more with her and applied for a guide dog.

In 1971, on my first day out with Topsy, I went to the library. They refused to let the dog in, and I was distraught. I began to discover that many places didn’t allow guide dogs – Butlins, cinemas and restaurants. Determined to give Jacqueline a normal life, I began campaigning and continue to campaign today.

One hundred people go blind in this country every day, and we still face real challenges that limit our ability to live independently. The state of rehabilitation services in the UK is a disgrace. In my home town, people have to wait up to five months for the first visit from a rehab worker, and some people have to wait up to 18 months.

People need support from the start. Within a week they should be visited by a rehab worker who can teach them basic skills – such as making a cup of tea and getting washed and dressed. They also need counselling to help them come to terms with their condition.

Shared Streets are another major issue. They are no go areas for blind, deaf and other disabled people. Millions of pounds are spent each year on these schemes, and they prevent thousands of blind and partially sighted people from safely walking around our streets.

Over the next 80 years, I would like to see Guide Dogs continue to breed and train dogs that give people like me their independence. I’d also like to see guide dog owners supporting each other, especially when they are learning to live and work with a dog for the first time. And I’d like to see policy makes and governments develop a more realistic understanding of the challenges we face in our everyday lives.

Jill Allen-King OBE is an author, campaigner and a trustee of .Ricability and Disability Essex. Her first book was entitled ‘Just Jill’ and her second ‘Jill’s Leading Ladies’ will be published this autumn.

Comments

This week is Guide Dogs Week and the 80th anniversary of the first British guide dog partnerships. It is more than 40 years since I got my first guide dog and even now my sixth dog, Amanda, gives me the confidence I need to live a full life.

At 71, like everyone else, I want to go out on my own. People don’t realise how vulnerable we feel, but all my guide dogs have helped me feel safe.

Amanda helps me feel confident when I walk down the street or cross roads, she helps me go on bus and train journeys, and visit new places. Without my guide dogs, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to spend the last 40 years campaigning for a better deal for blind and partially sighted people.

I appreciate the lifeline that my guide dog gives me. I lost one eye after contracting measles as a child in the 1940s. As a young woman I built up a career as a cook and enjoyed a full life – dancing, walking and travelling.

Aged 24, I lost my sight on my wedding day. I was shocked and for the next seven years, I hardly left the house alone. I was depressed, isolated, and many of my neighbours didn’t know I existed.

I was delighted when, a few months after my wedding, I discovered I was pregnant with my daughter Jacqueline, who was born in 1964. As she grew I wanted to do more with her and applied for a guide dog.

In 1971, on my first day out with Topsy, I went to the library. They refused to let the dog in, and I was distraught. I began to discover that many places didn’t allow guide dogs – Butlins, cinemas and restaurants. Determined to give Jacqueline a normal life, I began campaigning and continue to campaign today.

One hundred people go blind in this country every day, and we still face real challenges that limit our ability to live independently. The state of rehabilitation services in the UK is a disgrace. In my home town, people have to wait up to five months for the first visit from a rehab worker, and some people have to wait up to 18 months.

People need support from the start. Within a week they should be visited by a rehab worker who can teach them basic skills – such as making a cup of tea and getting washed and dressed. They also need counselling to help them come to terms with their condition.

Shared Streets are another major issue. They are no go areas for blind, deaf and other disabled people. Millions of pounds are spent each year on these schemes, and they prevent thousands of blind and partially sighted people from safely walking around our streets.

Over the next 80 years, I would like to see Guide Dogs continue to breed and train dogs that give people like me their independence. I’d also like to see guide dog owners supporting each other, especially when they are learning to live and work with a dog for the first time. And I’d like to see policy makes and governments develop a more realistic understanding of the challenges we face in our everyday lives.

Jill Allen-King OBE is an author, campaigner and a trustee of .Ricability and Disability Essex. Her first book was entitled ‘Just Jill’ and her second ‘Jill’s Leading Ladies’ will be published this autumn.