Read Nick's story - this is why Peterborough Guide Dogs Mobility Team (covering Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire) are Moving it for Money and walking Miles 4 Freedom!  during Guide Dog week 7th to 15th October.  We want to raise £3,310 during guide Dogs week.  

Inspirational Story - Nick Burr (Cambridgeshire) (The picture is of Nick, his guide dog Amber and his pet dog Beau

Imagine going about your day to day activities, travelling to work and getting ready and looking forward to spending a great Christmas with your friends and family only to have it cruelly taken away from you. 

Nicholas visited his local out of hours GP surgery on Boxing Day 2013 with what he thought was ear ache.  After repeatedly being told everything was fine and to take codeine for the pain, he was informed he may have meningitis and to get to A & E – quickly.  When he got to hospital Nicholas collapsed and fell into a coma. When he woke to find he had not only been diagnosed with a life threatening illness of the central nervous system Lymphoma - but had also lost all sight.  Everything he knew was gone!  

“At the time I did not focus on the sight loss, I put all my energy into beating the cancer and getting strong.  This was hard as it took 6 months of going in and out of hospital for chemotherapy – but hey I was alive – not yet kicking but definitely alive”.

Once Nicholas was given the great news that the cancer was in remission he then set to and focused on re-learning everyday tasks. Making a cup of tea became a health hazard due to the boiling water; going to the pub with friends seemed a lifetime away. 

In 2014 Nicholas received tremendous help from his Local Authority team (Cambridge), who taught him how to do everyday activities, and walk with a long cane.  Admittedly at this time it was very slow and
laborious – but he stuck with it. “My friends and family were amazing and got me through the tough days”.

Guide Dogs came into my Nick’s life during 2014 and provided his family with My Guide Friends and Family training.  “This gave my family more
confidence in how to guide me properly and allowed them to  understand through wearing the sim specs what my new life living without sight was like”.

By 2015 Nicholas was becoming much stronger and although Guide Dogs had visited him and had started working with Nicholas he felt at that time a guide dog could not make that much difference to him.  “How wrong was I?” states Nicholas.  “This amazing creature called
Amber came into my life in 2016, who is a German Shepherd.  She has helped me to live my life - admittedly in a different to way before 2013.  I now live independently and on my own, travel widely using buses and trains and feel that I have come through the bad times of my health scare”.

Nicholas has a very full on life and enjoys keeping fit and playing blind goal-ball, blind golf and blind tandem cycling, raising much needed funds for a local sight loss charity – Cam Sight. 

 “The most important thing is that I now don’t have to rely on others to get me out and about – Amber helps me to do this daily. We trust each other.  We don’t always get it right and the 7am morning feeds, are a struggle sometimes but actually she is why I get myself up and out every day”.

The whole Peterborough Mobility Team (Guide Dogs) is doing something amazing this year and we need as many people to support, sponsor us, as possible. 

We have 331 clients using ALL our services across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.  The team has taken on the challenge to Move It For Money during Guide dog week and walk a mile for each client.  That equates to each team member walking 14.5 miles each! 

By sponsoring us your money will go towards the following:

• 80p could help feed a guide dog for a day.
• £2 could buy a dog bowl to feed a hungry pup after a hard day's work
• £5 could support a working guide dog partnership for a day
• £6  could pay for microchipping for one of our new guide dog puppies
• £7 could buy a collar for a working guide dog
• £10 could buy a grooming kit to keep a guide dog looking and feeling great!
• £15 could buy a lead for use in basic guide dog training or for a working partnership
• £18 could buy a harness handle, the medium through which the guide dog owner feels where their dog is headed
• £25 could buy a white harness, the iconic symbol of a fully qualified guide dog
• £50 could buy an Off to School Kit for a puppy moving into puppy walking training
• £95 could buy a Training School Kit for a guide dog starting training at training school
• £140 could buy a Starter Kit for a new guide dog owner

If you want to know more about Guide Dogs then please visit http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/

Thank you.

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