Peruvian trek aims to raise guide dogs funding

A trekking party in Peru, including four blind people, is this week aiming to raise over €150,000 to help train more guide dogs.

The 40 participants jetting off to Lima include Green Party leader Trevor Sargent and his wife Fingal County Council member Heidi Bedell.

Walkers will attempt the famous high-altitude 70km trek from Cusco to Machu Picchu, the hidden city of the Incas 15,000 feet high in the Andes mountains.

Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind estimate that each animal costs up to €35,000 to fully breed and train.

Dubliner Tina Lowe, one of the blind people going on the trek, said a guide dog changed her life after she lost her sight in 1993.

“A dog gives you back your independence. You can go where you want and lots of things are suddenly possible,” the 39-year-old said today.

Tina raised over double the €3,150 required to go on the trek through table quizzes and donations.

Mr Sargent said he got interested in the work of the Guide Dogs for the Blind when he was a school teacher.

He added: “The trek is both a physical and a financial challenge.

“Getting time to train has not been easy and finding a mountain in Dublin North was even more difficult.”

Tina, who works with disability recruitment agency Ahead, lost her sight after a virus attacked her optic nerves while she was living in Spain in the early 1990s.

She believes that people act more normally around blind people who have guide dogs, rather than canes.

But she added: “Many restaurants, taxi drivers and shop owners in this country are still unaware of legislation that means they must admit guide dogs.”

Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind, which is supported by footballer Roy Keane, brings mobility and independence to the lives of blind and visually impaired people all over Ireland.

Over 80% of its income comes from voluntary contributions and through its network of 85 fundraising branches around the country.