A constant companion who has dramatically improved her quality of life is how visually impaired Onchan woman Vivienne Peters describes her guide dog Piper.
Vivienne started losing her sight ten years ago, and is now completely blind in her left eye and partially sighted in the right.
She says before she got a guide dog she was isolated and very restricted in what she could do, but Piper has given her the confidence to travel both on and off the Island without being dependent on other people.
There are around 500 visually impaired people in the Isle of Man, but only a handful have dogs.
Vivienne is heading up a campaign on behalf of the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association to make sure everyone on the Island who's entitled to a dog is able to have one.
She says she couldn't imagine being without Piper now (play audio file):
For more information visit guidedogs.org.uk/enquiries or ring 0845 372 7499.
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