Jill's Leading Ladies by Jill Allen-King OBE

Author:Jill Allen-King OBE
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Guide, guide dogs, Blind, visually impared, hard sighted, disabilty, eyes, story, biography, OBE
ISBN: 9781908582645
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2012
Published: 2012-02-14T00:00:00+00:00

1989

My house, bought back in 1963, had a very small kitchen of about 8ft square. The cooker was located on one wall and the sink on another. This had always made it quite difficult when moving hot saucepans from the cooker across to the sink, so Alvin and I decided to have an extension built.

The extension was completed in January and included the installation of a new central heating gas boiler and a back door leading from the kitchen into a 10ft dog run where the dogs could go to the toilet, as well as a water supply with a tap and hose so that the run could be cleaned.

We also had a toilet added next to our dining room, which turned out to be a blessing when my mum had her leg amputated in 1990 and came to stay with us every weekend.

In April Alvin and I went to Majorca on our own for the first time, as Barbara and John, who had accompanied us twice in the past, were going to become Mayor and Mayoress of Southend in May. We still couldn’t take our guide dogs with us, as the quarantine regulations hadn’t been changed.

On 12 July we opened another branch of the NFB in Southend, which gave guide dog owners the opportunity to meet as well as helping those people losing their sight.

It was the 100th anniversary of Southend Pier, the longest pier in the world, on 7 August and we all (apart from Quella) dressed up in Victorian costume. Quella took a very active part in the celebrations on the pier, together with our friends Barbara and John, who were now Mayor and Mayoress.

Rhona, who had looked after our guide dogs while we went to Majorca, was married in September, and I made her wedding cake for her.

Also in September Quella and I were invited to have lunch with Nicholas Scott, Minister for the Disabled. By this time guide dogs were allowed into the public gallery of the House of Commons. While we sat and listened to the debate about discrimination, in his speech Nicholas Scott referred to his four-legged friend in the public gallery, giving examples of the access problems I’d experienced over many years, including with the House itself.

We did 24 talks this year, including a few at the local Southend Hospital, where I was born in 1940 and where many members of my family had died. I would train all levels of staff how to guide a blind person and serve food and drinks, and would make them aware of all the needs that a blind person has while either visiting a hospital as an out-patient or staying as an in-patient. I also highlighted the need for correspondence to be made available in large print, in Braille and on audio. I told them that guide dogs should be allowed to accompany their owners for out-patient appointments, although they would probably need a friend or family member to look after the dog if hospitalised.

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