This charity is close to my heart. Being Sight Impaired myself, it can be a real challenge doing normal everyday things. It is hard to be independent and push yourself to go out and interact with people when you can't recognise people, go to shops and order food and coffee when you can't see menus, etc. I am very aware of how much a Guide Dog can completely change a person's life, giving them back the independence that sight loss can take from them. Sight loss is often an invisible disability, while guide dogs help in so many ways, they can make this often invisible disability visible, which can also make a huge difference.

I am not a runner and have never gone out for a recreational run or jog, so this is a real challenge for me. I usually avoid anything like this as it is out of my comfort zone. Strangely, the most challenging thing might not be the run but actually finding the start of the race on my own. I am prepared to give it a go, be brave and ask for help if needed, which has never really been a strength of mine. The race will be fine (in terms of knowing where to go anyway!) as there will be that many people, I can just follow everyone else. I assume we will be pretty much penned in any way, so I just need to survive and hope my body holds out! Luckily I have just shy of 9 months to prepare. I will endeavour to post a monthly update video on Facebook/Instagram to keep you all informed of how it is going. I won't keep posting runs etc as I imagine that would be super annoying! Thank you for reading and all the support in terms of donations, advice and positive messages.

From Guide Dogs:

Every day, 250 more people join the 2 million already living with sight loss. This number is set to double by 2050, which is why our work is more important than ever before, however, we can only continue our life-changing work, such as our guide and buddy dog services, mobility training, education support, sighted guides and much more with your support.

"Having a guide dog is a life-changing experience and I'm phenomenally grateful to Guide Dogs for enabling me to be more independent" - Priya, guide dog owner.