An award winning Shropshire caravan and motorhome dealership and its customers have raised £800 to support the work of Guide Dogs.
Salop Leisure, which has its headquarters in Shrewsbury and sales centres in Machynlleth and Stourport-on-Severn, raised the money by selling teas and coffees to customers during the recent successful West Midlands Caravan and Motorhome Show.
The company has been a long term supporter of the work of Guide Dogs in Shropshire, Staffordshire and part of the West Midlands.
“We have supported Guide Dogs for many years because the charity makes a real difference to people’s lives,” said Salop Leisure’s chairman Tony Bywater.
David Underwood, chairman of Guide Dogs’ Shrewsbury fundraising group, thanked the company and its customers for their generous support.
He said the money would go towards supporting the breeding, training and welfare of guide dogs in Shropshire, Staffordshire and part of the West Midlands. The region currently has 213 guide dog owners and it costs around £50,000 to support a guide dog throughout its lifetime.
Guide Dogs is supported by groups in the Shropshire towns of Shrewsbury, Ludlow. Oswestry, Market Drayton and Telford. The charity is constantly seeking volunteers and anyone interested is asked to contact: valerie.jobes@guidedogs.org.uk.
Almost two million people in the UK are living with sight loss and this figure could double by 2050.Every hour, another person in the UK goes blind and Guide Dogs helps to ensure they don’t lose their freedom as well.
In 2014, it cost around £48 million to run the guide dog service without any government funding. It takes around 20 months of specialised training to transform a newborn puppy into a confident guide dog.
