St Albans students raise �5,000 to sponsor new guide dog

A GUIDE dog puppy has been named by students at a charitable school which has raised �5,000 to sponsor him.

Marlborough School in St Albans raised the huge sum over several years, mainly through school fairs and non-school uniform days and it already has �3,000 towards sponsoring a second guide dog puppy.

A competition was run for Year 9 students at the science college to suggest a name for the puppy and Marley was chosen as the winner by the charity Guide Dogs, which has a training centre locally in Frogmore. The name had been put forward by four pupils – Simone Corcoran, Chloe Irving, Jordan Miller and Emma Sullivan – who all received goody bags.

The puppy is yet to be born but the �5,000 will cover the cost of breeding, training, vaccinations, vets’ bills, food and equipment for his first 12 months.

The Year 9 students were visited by Eddie Franklin with his guide dog Meg recently and he spoke during an assembly about his experience of being blind before taking questions from pupils. He then accepted the cheque on behalf of Guide Dogs.

There are 6,000 registered blind and partially sighted people in Herts and many of these who are without guide dogs never go out alone. Guide Dogs has transformed the lives of over 26,000 visually impaired people since it was founded in 1931.