I am running the London Marathon to raise money for The Guide Dog's Association. 

As many of you will know my Dad, Haseeb is completely blind. He has a condition called Retinitis pigmentosa which leads to progressive vision loss. 

My Dad has had two lovely guide dogs who I have grown up around. His first guide dog Quin was a beautiful golden Labrador. Quin sadly passed away in January 2013. His second guide dog is the wonderful Walt, a black German shepherd retriever cross who is now 10 years old. 

Guide dogs are highly trained and are able to lead their owners around obstacles and people. People with vision loss are able to use guide dogs to help them to travel safely to work, home, school and many other places. Both Walt and Quin have supported my Dad to travel to work and to the gym independently. Walt used to love all the fuss he would get at the gym before lockdown! 

The Guide Dog's Association not only provide fully trained Guide Dog's to those with vision loss, they also cover all food and health related costs until the dog retires. When we sadly lost Quin in 2013 due to a tumour on his spleen, Guide Dog's covered all of his vet fees. This removed a lot of stress from our family at a very sad time. 

Despite all of the help that Guide Dog's provide for their owners, they are often still refused entry to public places despite this being against the law. My Dad has experienced this several times and has been refused taxi's when he has had his Guide Dog's with him. This discrimination has been experienced by Guide Dog owners all over the country. 

I am therefore running the London Marathon to raise money for Guide Dog's due to the support they have given my family over the years.  

Almost two million people in the UK are living with sight loss that has a significant impact on their daily lives. Of those, around 180,000 rarely leave their homes alone and lead lonely, isolated lives. Guide Dogs works for a world where people with sight loss are never left out of life, for a world where being blind or partially sighted is not what defines you. A world with enough support to make the challenges of sight loss no barrier to fulfilling hopes and dreams.