Bringing in the pounds for pups

Supported by Guide Dogs’ community fundraising development officer, Nichola Bonsall, guide dogs Jingle, Fudge, Jeanie and Darby, visited the students at the college’s Derby Road campus with their owners and trainers on Thursday (29 November).

For a small donation, students could meet the guide dogs, give them a hug and find out more about the working life of a guide dog and how they are funded and trained.

Money raised on the day, through donations to meet the puppies will be added to the current total of £600 which is going towards the college sponsoring their own guide dog.

In 2017 the college successfully sponsored a guide dog puppy called Nathan – and it’s aiming to raise over £2,500 which is needed to sponsor another puppy.

One guide dog user, Kimberley, brought along her companion Darby, who she’s had for two and a half years. Darby is her second guide dog. Kimberley has been visually-impaired all her life and she frequently visits schools for advisory group sessions. She visited the college recently to speak to animal care students.

Another guide dog user, Jasmine Newton, visited with her seven-year-old dog Jingle.  Jasmine has had Jingle, her first-ever dog, for five years and says: “I’d be lost without her and can’t remember not having her around me.”

Childcare student Lolita Ancliffe, 16, is a big fan of dogs so wanted to come and see the guide dogs and make a donation.  She said: “I really admire the loyalty of the dogs, they are so well behaved and so very clever to be able to do what they do for people.”

Development officer Nichola Bonsall said: “It’s great to see the college raising money again. By raising £2.5k the college will get a named guide dog puppy to sponsor and the puppy will be able to visit to meet them here at college – just as we did with Nathan.

“Each time we visit, we get to see so many students who pay a lot of interest in the service we offer to the visually impaired and blind community.”