My little girl did good today in our city. Hub took her to
do a street collection. He met with his colleagues who went with him to town
and back home. They were fantastic worked so hard and a bunch of kind much
needed volunteers who dedicated one hour of their time.
Thankfully it was a lovely sunny day, which makes a change
to the rain we have had of late. Our councillor of our city came to offer her
time as well which is brilliant. A great lady she is too. Not sure how much was
raised yet, but every penny to pound will help.
As you know, Hub is trying to raise money to name a guide
dog puppy after our beautiful Suki otherwise known as Long Chops. It’s been
three weeks since we had to get her put for her forever sleep. Three weeks?
So far because of
your kindness we have raised over £700 and Hubs target is £2,500. If he manages
to raise more, then we will aim for two names, but we are a very long way off
that. All I know is at the moment we are driving to name a little Suki puppy. A
pup I hope will grow up to be the eyes for a person who can’t see well enough to
leave their homes without help.
I was talking to a lady the other day that is deaf and uses
a hearing aid she not long ago was told she was going blind too. She has a dual
trained dog. This is a dog given to her from Guide Dogs. Her dog tells her when
her phone is ringing, when someone is at the door and one night she left a
candle on forgot all about it and it caught fire. Her wonderful Guide dog alerted
her she went to see what was happening and was able to call the fire brigade and
receive help. If not for her guide dog, her and her young children would have
died.
The fire brigade gave the lady a device that goes under her
pillow and vibrates if the smoke alarm is set off.
So Guide Dogs don’t just think about people with sight loss,
but they care about those who also can’t hear and whole families are affected
by the charity and as I have said before, Guide Dogs UK is a charity receiving
no Government funding they rely totally on the public.
They also help blind children and have many other services.
You can learn how to support them by one phone call in your
area.
As for Hubs Just giving page, the link is below and we would
be so grateful if you could spare a pound we have had such kindness from
America we are still in so much shock and the UK have been wonderful. One of
our friends is organising an event for February in Northumberland and Hub is
looking into what he can do to raise more money.
I suggested leg waxing….. In his office…… I know his
colleagues read this blog; I wonder what they think about getting a pot of that
stuff haha haha. He is really serious so this makes it funny, but he asked me
tonight
“How far up do they wax?”
“Oh’hh’hh’oh
I replied.
“Groin height love.”
Hahheheheh Well, you could hear a pin drop as he gulped then
replied.
“What else do you think I could do?”
There is talk of a parachute jump. I don’t want to know
about that. No way. Especially because he is trying to get teen involved and
poor teen is absolutely terrified of heights. I just know I don’t want to lose
my two boys and I hate things like parachute or anything dangerous.
I don’t know why he can’t just flipping sing? He has an
amazing voice and he is brilliant on the piano but it has almost caused a war
in our house because I won’t let it go. I just think it’s a great way to raise
money and entertain people. His voice is world class and you should hear him
playing the piano? Wow, simply beautiful.
Over the next couple of weeks we are going to think what we
can do. It costs £50,000 in the lifetime of a guide dog. Two and a half
thousand doesn’t sound a lot but if everyone raises that much then the waiting
list for our precious dogs would be halved.
I have had two guide dogs now, Hub four I think. So we have
had six, my friend who is helping us with the event she has had I think five
and
My friend Trix and
her Hub between them have had about eight, my other friend has had one and our
friend Mr. Clock has had about five so in our small circle of friends who are
blind, we have had about £1,250000 out of Guide Dogs UK.
That is a frightening amount of money. But because of our
dogs, we have been able to take our children to school. The Doctors, holidays just like you would as
a sighted parent, we have been able to work and most of my friends who are
blind also do loads of volunteering I’m not joking, one of them our Bestie
Like, as he is lovingly known as by us, gives the Samaritans his time which
involves one day per week and one night per month where he leaves his house at
eleven in the evening walks the forty minutes to get where he needs to be and
returns home at six in the morning. In all whether. He talks to people on the
phone from all kinds of backgrounds helping them to go forward in life.
Spending hours with people who are at rock bottom. He helps to lift them out of
their dark holes and he could only do this because of the help he receives from
his wonderful guide dog.
My Husband has always worked with people who need his expertise
to lead quote, normal life. To survive to have the rights to read and write and
to leave their houses rather than be like a prisoner for committing no crime
other than to have sight loss. He travelled all over the world, taking
equipment to schools for the blind in India, teaching in Africa, making sure
when he went to America he had all he needed to persuade the US of important
agreements that would totally make our lives in the UK and our neighbours
across the big pond so much easier, working with Apple, Google and Microsoft. I
could go on, his work in the Houses of Parliament to insure the rights for
blind and partially sighted people didn’t get forgotten.
He did this with the help of his guide dogs. And we are
crushed now to be without a guide dog. We don’t have one to help Hub because Guide
Dogs UK don’t have the money to help on demand.
A man I spoke with not long ago lost his wife to cancer.
They were both in their seventies. He has no children or relatives who will
help him he is totally blind. He always relied on his wife. So now what?
He can’t get out of the house. He doesn’t see his old friend
in the nursing home any more he has been friends with him since they were six.
His wife used to take him for weekly visits and now? Both men filled with
sadness.
My heart broke. This man is on the list for a guide dog. Bless
him. He will get one I hope in time before either men die. He just wants to be
able to go to the shop for his bread, and I for one know that it’s not just
about getting food, it’s about getting out meeting people talking to another
human.
I’m sorry, this is a heavy blog. Just I live with a man who
is deeply affected by the loss of his guide dog and I have friends who are
waiting as well for a dog. They are trapped. Now luckily most of them have good
families, but imagine your life, you want to pick your kids up from school. You
need to go to the Doctors; you have to get a haircut. You have an important
meeting to go to. You need to get to work.
You can’t. You must stay in your house. For how long? One
month? One year? Three years. Yes, some people are on the list for that long.
So to the people of our city today, thank you all. Thank you
for stopping by and putting a pound or more in the bucket. Thank you to those
who gave their time and how brilliant is this? Today little Wagga and co, got
some new volunteers who are going to spend time being a friend to someone who can’t
see. And you know, we are not scary people. We do love to laugh. Also we well,
some of us, are quite clever, even highly intelligent.
To those who have stopped by the just giving page and
donated, I’m so very grateful. We both are and whoever gets a little Suki in
the future, how proud I’m going to be our little girls name lives on and
someone gets their life back, because of you. Xxxx
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