Guide Dog Week comes to Stokesley (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Guide Dog Week comes to Stokesley

5:12pm Tuesday 30th September 2008

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GUIDE dogs from across the region will visit Stokesley next week to educate the public on how to help people with sight loss when they are out and about.

The event is part of Guide Dog Week and guide dogs from North Yorkshire, Teesside and Durham will visit the market town on October 10 and other members of the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association will hand out free DVDs and leaflets at the Town Hall between 10.30am and 2.30pm.

The team will highlight that in potentially difficult situations people with sight loss can sometimes need an extra helping hand, even if they have a guide dog or a cane.

Such situations include busy streets and road junctions, railway or bus stations, unfamiliar places or crowded pavements.

The Sighted Guiding DVD and leaflet illustrate five helpful hints to enable people to feel confident should the need arise to offer help to a person with sight loss.

These are: introducing yourself and offering to help; asking how the person would like to be guided and where they want to go; allowing the person to take your arm; saying when you are approaching steps, kerbs or hazards and saying when you have finished assisting them and that you are now leaving.

The team will also offer advice for the general public about dealing with guide dogs and the importance of not distracting them from their work.

The DVD and leaflet can also be ordered from the charity’s website www.guidedogs.org.uk/guidedogweek, or by calling 0870-240-6993.

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