The UK&I Claims team at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions is walking across the Capital to support our charity partner Guide Dogs and help 2,000 children and families living with sight loss. 

The route is 16 miles long and will start from our offices at the Gherkin heading west towards Buckingham Palace, before heading through two Royal Parks on to Kensington Palace before heading toward Paddington and then following Regents Canal towards Kings Cross passing through Camden before heading towards the City and back to the Gherkin. 

Every year 1,460 parents receive a new diagnosis that their child is blind or losing their sight. When parents hear the devastating news, they often don’t know where to turn and there is no immediate guidance or emotional support available. Families are frightened and have very limited access to practical support, until their child reaches school age. Swiss Re Foundation will be fundraising to support Guide Dogs in providing new hospital-based Guide Dogs Family Support Outreach Officers within specialist Paediatric Eye Hospitals across the UK. For the first time, there will be dedicated support for families whose child receives a new sight loss diagnosis. Family Support Outreach Officers will provide families with emotional and practical support from the point of diagnosis, helping them to understand their child’s diagnosis with compassion and reassurance. They’ll use their expertise to create a tailored plan for each family, ensuring that they can also benefit from wider support from Guide Dogs Children’s Programmes, as the largest provider of support services for children with sight loss, and guide families on how to gain additional help from other organisations.