Together, we'll raise £5,000 to name a UK guide dog.

WHY HOPE?

2022 has been my most challenging year for so many reasons. Guide Dogs has given me more than 23 years o independence and freedom. My WHY is purely to say thank you. I've been proud to volunteer with the charity since 1998, but here, for the first time without a guide dog since 2 August 1999 and having had the worst year of my life - hands down, I realised, in a cab on my way home that life is what you make it. I questioned what has been absent for me in 2022 and the answer is clearly one word - HOPE.

Over the years, I've done some pretty daft things to raise money for the charity I owe so much to from bearing the physical scars of breaking my hip in 2008 running the London Marathon (you can read about that at just giving.com/themarathanmen ) to blind walking 90 miles for Guide Dogs with Siobhan to name Guide Dog Pup Dilley and even to get together with my mate Dave to name a guide dog Pup Finn, who's working with his owner in Leeds as we speak, I've always had the gratitude and crucially the confidence to put my hand up and say, we can do this.

2022 has isolated and to a great extent, trapped me as I am now a full time cane user until the right match com3s up with the right dog, at the right time for me. I've been told that match is likely to take two years due to the very specific matching requirements - but in the UK, there were around 5,000 guide dogs before the pandemic... now due to a mix of Guide Dogs stopping their breading programme for social distancing and safety reasons to not being able to socialise dogs in realistic situations, there are fewer than 4,000. If you think about that, 1 in 5 people who had a guide dog before the pandemic now does not.

It would mean the world to me if you could help me and work with me to name a guide dog pup HOPE before Christmas. Any amount of pennies you feel you can chuck in would be gratefully received and 100% of it will go to HOPE of 2022.

On a personal note, I need to regain the confidence this year has robbed from me. I'm prepared to do some pretty stupid things to hit the target. If you don't want to see me doing stupid things like the 90 mile walk through dangerous conditions, dig deep :)

Also, if we haven't spoken in a while, why not say hello. You'd be surprised the good that could do.

Ok so thank you everyone. Keep it here for updates and expect lots of different fundraising ideas to emerge until we hit the target. How quickly can we do it? Thank you all SO much.

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