Saundersfoot guide dog volunteer celebrates Lifetime award
Andrew Lennox, Guide Dogs' chief executive, announced that Ms Rich has been a guide dog owner for 63 years with seven guide dogs throughout her life.
The names of each dog were read out during the ceremony.
Ms Rich revealed to the audience her anticipation of being paired with guide dog number eight, following the withdrawal of Nancy, a Labrador cross retriever.
Pembrokeshire's collection box coordinator, Lynn Knibbs, accompanied Mrs Rich at the event, where they were presented with a bouquet, badge, commemorative plate imprinted with a guide dog image, as well as a certificate.
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BBC News
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Guide Dogs Sheffield appeals for people to foster puppies
Guide Dogs Sheffield is appealing for volunteers to foster puppies to ensure there is no delay in their charity aims to train 45 puppies a year at its centre in Tinsley but there is a shortage of fosterers who can look after pups at home from a few weeks old to about 14 is also a lack of fosterers who can look after older puppies on evenings and weekends while they finish the final stages of their Dogs says the two roles are "vital and without volunteers there's a risk of delays giving someone with sight loss their independence". Sarah Longley has fostered Vector since he was eight weeks old and started his initial training at her home."It's similar to normal puppy training but we introduced him to trains, buses, shops and noisy places so he is hopefully a well-rounded puppy ready to go to the next stage."Vector is now 14 months and is moving on to the next stage of daily training at the Guide Dogs cannot keep him as part of his training is adapting to a new family, but she hopes to get another foster pup."I thought I would learn something new, it would be fun and it was giving something back," she said."He'll leave us and it will be really hard saying goodbye but it's emotional in a good way as hopefully he's going on to do a brilliant thing." Kirsty Simpson is employed by Guide Dogs to train older puppies during the day on a mock street with bollards, bus stops and fake pedestrian Kirsty is their trainer, Guide Dogs still need fosterers to look after the older pups in evenings and weekends until they fully qualify when they are about said: "Fosterers are families of all sizes, it doesn't matter if you live alone or you have children, you can even have other pet dogs, because our dogs need to be okay with other animals in the home. You don't need a big garden either."You don't need previous experience with dogs, we train everybody and fully support people. Guide Dogs will fund everything such as food, vaccinations and equipment, we just ask for a loving family and a lovely home."If people are out at work all day, Kirsty suggests fostering an older puppy."They are training all day Monday to Friday so you can drop off from first thing in the morning and collect at teatime, then you get to enjoy the dog throughout the rest of the evening and over the weekend." Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
Daily Record
5 days ago
- Daily Record
Guide Dogs fundraisers thank Lanarkshire shoppers for support
Volunteers from the Hamilton group raised £1500 with a stall and collection at Tesco in Carluke. Fabulous fundraisers from Hamilton's Guide Dogs group collected an impressive £1500 for the charity thanks to the support of generous staff and customers at Tesco in Carluke. Volunteers and their canine companions sold charity merchandise and received donations from shoppers at the store on Lanark Road to reach the total, which will be used to support the charity's life-changing work for people with sight loss, including raising and training vital guide dogs. New supporters are being invited to get involved with the fundraising group, in roles ranging from regular or occasional helpers to deputy group co-ordinator or secretary. Guide Dogs, which is almost entirely dependent on public donations, told how it costs £102,000 to raise, train and support a guide dog from birth to retirement – and Hamilton fundraising group co-ordinator William Vaughan said: 'I know the difference these donations can make.' He had his first guide dog, Murdoch, for seven years; and is now supported by current companion Sweep, who has been with him for the past year. William said: 'I got Murdoch in 2016 and he was a great dog that changed my life – he kept me safe and enabled me to do so much, including travelling all over the UK. Sadly, Murdoch passed away late 2023 and I felt like I wasn't able to go anywhere. 'I was invited to join the local Guide Dogs fundraising group around that time. I wasn't sure if this was right for me, but I liked that I would get to meet other dogs. It turned out to be amazing and the positive response from the public is overwhelming.' He teamed up with black Labrador cross golden retriever Sweep in July 2024 and is back to living an 'active and independent life' – and said: 'Sweep is so eager to please, from when he gets up in the morning to the time he goes to bed. He loves it when he is at an event; he gets a day where the harness goes off he loves interacting with the public.' Fundraising group co-ordinator William added: 'With having those responsibilities, I was able to learn about other parts of volunteering within Guide Dogs, from being a puppy raiser to fostering dogs whilst on their training – but fundraising is the one for me. You become part of a family, not only when fundraising but outside this role too.' Guide Dogs west of Scotland community fundraising manager Sandi Johnson said: 'I am so proud of the Hamilton fundraising group who attended Tesco Carluke and raised over £1500. 'These volunteers are so passionate and out in all weathers, making a huge difference to local people living with a vision impairment in our communities. Thank you to Tesco shoppers who donated, and to the staff who welcomed and looked after our volunteers.' Now local residents are being invited to join the successful Hamilton fundraising group – who received an award for their efforts in raising £13,000 for the charity, which has a base at Auchingramont Road. The group is seeking a deputy co-ordinator and a secretary to help with its administration, and would also like to hear from anyone interested in helping with fundraising activities whether regularly or doing so now and again.
Leader Live
7 days ago
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Bringing lynx back to Northumberland backed by 72% of locals, consultation finds
One of only two native cat species in Britain along with the wild cat, lynx vanished 800 years ago due to hunting and loss of their woodland habitat. While other lost or rare species such as beavers and pine martens are now staging comebacks in Britain, large predators such as lynx and wolves have proved more controversial, with concerns over their presence in a highly populated island and the risk they could pose to livestock. Conservationists say it is right to at least consider bringing back the lynx to help tackle problems caused by deer, boost woodland ecosystems and reverse declines in nature in Britain. A scientific assessment by the Missing Lynx Project has found the cats could thrive if released in Northumberland, the only area of England and Wales with enough woodland to support them. Around 20 animals released over several years into the Kielder forest area could grow over time into a healthy population of around 50 in north-west Northumberland and bordering areas of Cumbria and southern Scotland, the peer-reviewed paper found. Findings from more than 1,000 questionnaires as part of a year-long social consultation by the project, led by The Lifescape Project in partnership with Northumberland Wildlife Trust and The Wildlife Trusts, show 72% of people in the project area support a potential lynx reintroduction. The consultation also included an exhibition touring the region visited by almost 10,000 people, more than 100 stakeholder meetings and one-to-one interviews with community groups, farmers, landowners, foresters and business, and a series of workshops. The project even ran trips for farmers to Europe to see how people were living with reintroduced lynx there. Now, the team is continuing to work with locals to discuss how a potential reintroduction could be managed and is urging people across the UK to get involved with a national questionnaire. Lynx are solitary animals around the size of a slim Labrador, with distinctive tufty ears, which live in forests and woodland, and catch their prey – mainly deer, but also foxes, rabbits and hares – by ambushing them. Mike Pratt, chief executive of Northumberland Wildlife Trust, said it was right to consider bringing back the species to what should be the wildest part of England. The lynx could provide benefits including controlling deer, managing woodland ecosystems better and even providing ecotourism opportunities – though the chance of actually seeing what he describes as 'ghosts of the woodland' is very small. He said: 'The power of it is having this creature that should always have been there in these forests of the borders, where it's almost a symbol of the wildness of that area. 'It would symbolise that we're really serious, in what should be the wildest part of the country, (about) bringing nature back.' While the project would consider applying for a reintroduction licence 'down the line', following the positive response to the initial consultation, the focus now is on working up a plan with local people that is deliverable, he said. One of the key concerns with lynx is the likelihood of them taking sheep in fields adjoining woodland. Measures that could be used – as they have in Europe – to reduce the risk to livestock include electric fencing, guard dogs, compensation payments and people on the ground to respond to issues. Dr Deborah Brady, lead ecologist for the Lifescape Project, told the PA news agency: 'For this country we expect the risk to be reasonably low, but there is definitely a risk. 'Even if it is low, everything matters, for every sheep taken there is an impact on that individual farmer, both an emotional impact and a financial impact. 'We need to work really closely and carefully with farmers to think about how we best approach it.' Dr Brady is clear the cats pose no danger to people. 'They avoid people wherever they can, people rarely see them and there has been no recorded fatality from lynx ever, so they are no danger to adults or children, they are no danger to people,' she said. While she said their return is not going to be the 'silver bullet' to the problem of an overlarge deer population, as each lynx only kills one deer a week, the presence of a predator helps keeps herds moving and reduces overgrazing. Bringing back a native species such as the lynx can help rebuild ecosystems and start to 'turn the tide' on wildlife loss in the UK, one of the world's most nature-depleted countries, she said. Lauren Harrison, a sheep farmer on Hadrian's Wall, said she was excited but 'quite ignorant' about lynx before she visited the Missing Lynx exhibition. 'I was very excited and very positive, but I had concerns for the livestock,' she said. She has since gone on a visit with other farmers to Switzerland and Germany where she saw it was possible to live alongside the animals. Her land is sufficiently far from woodland not to be affected, but she said for farmers facing the small risk of losing sheep 'that needs to be managed, needs to be done in a way that's fair to farmers, that's practical, and doesn't get in the way of day-to-day life'. She urged other farmers in the area to get involved with the project. Alongside the practical benefits of bringing back lynx, there is an emotional value to returning the animals to Northumberland, she believes. 'It's a slightly forgotten-about area around here, we are a long way from Westminster and financial centres. 'Just to be the place that has this stunning creature coming back, I think it would give such a lift to know that's on our doorstep,' she said. To take part in the national survey on reintroducing lynx, people can visit:
