A Dalgety Bay Guide Dogs volunteer’s name will live on, in puppy form.
After raising £5,000, a west Fife fundraising group have received a photo of the guide dog puppy they named in memory of their friend and fellow volunteer Tom Innes.
Over the next year, the group will receive updates about puppy Innes, a six-week-old yellow Labrador, and they will also meet him before he goes to Guide Dog training school.
Community fundraising development officer Anne Rowse said: “Our west Fife volunteer fundraising group have done an incredible thing by naming this guide dog puppy to recognise the outstanding work of their fellow volunteer and fundraiser Tom Innes.
“Tom spent many years tirelessly supporting Guide Dogs and sadly passed away in May of last year.
“His relentless work and contribution to Guide Dogs included raising several pups from seven-weeks-old to around 14 months, who all became life-changing guide dogs, in his role as a volunteer puppy walker.”
She added Tom also covered all aspects of fundraising, from being treasurer of the group, to organising and co-ordinating events, sharing his passion for guide dogs while giving presentations, and “being an all-round hands-on fundraiser and inspiration to everyone he met”.
The £5,000 was raised through various activities, with amazing support from the wider community within Fife and Kinross.
The focus was a silver Smarties challenge, in which groups of school pupils, brownies, bank staff, hospital staff and many other Guide Dogs supporters filled empty sweets tubes with £12 in 20p coins.
There are around 180,000 blind and partially sighted people living in the UK who find it difficult to leave home on their own, and the charity Guide Dogs wants to change that.
Anne added: “We rely on donations to continue our life changing work and to raise £5,000 is simply wonderful.
“The kind support of this amazing group of people will allow us make a life-changing difference to people with sight loss.”
To find out how you could name a puppy, call Anne Rowse on 07766505249 or email anne.rowse@guidedogs.org.uk.
