National Volunteers Week sees support for dogs

In honour of National Volunteers Week, beginning on Saturday, June 1, Guide Dogs for the Blind Association have seen 11,000 people offer to give their time to the charity.

The volunteers will carry out over 50 roles for the charity between them, including puppy walking, campaigning and fundraising.

The charity provides guide dogs and rehabilitation services, and campaigns for the rights of people with visual impairments. Last year, volunteers donated 16.7 million hours of their time to the charity.

Guide Dogs chief executive, Richard Leaman, said: "Throughout my time at Guide Dogs, I have met many truly amazing volunteers and I feel privileged and proud to be associated with such inspirational people.

"Without them, we wouldn’t be able to reach out to visually impaired people and offer life-changing freedom and independence."

The theme for this year's National Volunteers Week, is "Time to Say Thank You". In honour of this, Mr Leaman will be thanking each of the 11,000 Guide Dogs volunteers with a personal video message.

He added: "Volunteers’ Week is a fantastic opportunity for me to thank them personally for the incredible contribution they make."

Image: Volunteer Truly Johnston guiding 94-year-old Gladys Williams, Guide Dogs for the Blind Association