Finally able to venture out with confidence, she was shocked by how few places allowed guide dogs and began campaigning for better access to libraries, restaurants and public spaces.

Despite the worthiness of her cause, Allen-King is determinedly down-to-earth and has a wicked sense of humour. Jills autobiography charts her journey from partially sighted child to totally blind adult and beyond, a process of readjusting and learning through grit and determination and then using her knowledge and experience to do everything in her power to help others and to campaign for reforms to secure a safer, fairer and more disability-aware environment. Jill Allen-King MBE, 70, has penned Just Jill, a moving account of her triumph over adversity and how she used her own experience of disability to benefit others. The Thatcher and Major Governments were sympathetic to her many suggestions; ministers such as Linda Chalker (transport) and Tony Newton (local government) provided the legislative platform for many of her proposals in the fields of transport and the built environment.What little advice they did give was plain wrong, such as that her eye condition made it necessary for her to be sterilised after the birth of her daughter so that she had no more children. She was also instrumental in getting the Public Utilities Street Works Act passed which, for the first time, provided stringent safety measures for pedestrians in the presence of road works. Born fully sighted in 1940, a bout of measles meant Jill had to have one of her eyes removed as a baby. Her prettiness made people want to talk to her when we were out – which is disastrous when a guide dog is meant to be 'working’. But when we reached the hotel for our reception, I was walking down the long corridor to the banqueting suite and it seemed like the lights were flashing.

When she was 13, her aunt and uncle were drowned in the Canvey Island floods of 1953 and Jill was drafted in to help with the clean-up. Once all the buttons had been transferred she knew her journey was complete and even if she stopped on the way to chat to a friend she just needed to put her hand in her pocket to check the number of buttons remaining to know how far along the way she had walked. March 2011 - Jill Allen-King OBE signed copies of her book 'Just Jill' at Clacton Library, Clacton on Sea. We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. Pete Osborne, chief operations officer, also faces being without a dog when his companion Nyle retires.

What we're doing it exploring every possible avenue to close that gap and to bridge that time, so there isn't this cliff-edge where people are just left stranded.

Peter Osborne, the charity's chief operating officer, said: "We have over 1,000 people waiting for a guide dog in the UK at the moment. Mrs Allen-King, now aged 70, spent the rest of her life doing voluntary work and campaigning for blind and disabled people. As a result, Jill found herself on her own, newly married and shortly with a young child but little in the way of help, unable to go out by herself and believing that the active life she had previously enjoyed was at an end. At 24, on her wedding day – June 6, 1965, the 20th anniversary of D-Day – she went suddenly blind in her remaining eye, having developed acute glaucoma.The experience last Friday has left her scared for the future if the proposed closure of 974 ticket offices come into effect. Having been told to conceal her visual impairment, school was a struggle for want of the appropriate support. But the book is more than just an autobiography or an encouragement to others in Jill’s position to do likewise.

To lessen the impact on people faced with these problems, some claim in mitigation that blindness “is not so much a disability, rather an inconvenience”. Change country: -Select- Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Azerbaijan Republic Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Cape Verde Islands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Cook Islands Costa Rica Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) Fiji Finland French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Republic Gambia Georgia Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq Israel Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Namibia Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Republic of Croatia Republic of the Congo Reunion Romania Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts-Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Korea Sri Lanka Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City State Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands (U. This was designed to stop people parking on the pavements and encouraging garden owners to cut back overhanging trees and bushes so that any blind pedestrian could not get an uncomfortable or sometimes painful slap in the face.Jill Allen-King, 86, may be left without her crucial companion because of an enduring shortage of trained animals since the coronavirus pandemic.