0:11

On Vision Australia radio. You're listening

0:13

to the Seeing Eye Dog show with me, your host,

0:15

Harriet Muffett. Today I'm joined

0:17

by Sophie Thomas, a singer handler

0:20

and a national operations manager

0:22

and IT recruitment firm. And

0:25

she is also a big

0:27

nature and exercise lover. So we're going to be talking

0:29

a little bit about how she's going to be

0:31

taking part in 100 k year way,

0:33

as well as her partnership, life

0:35

and story, um, as well

0:38

as just a little bit about the wonderful Seeing

0:40

eye dog Winnie. Without further ado,

0:42

here is my interview with Sophie.

0:51

Hi, Sophie. Thank you for joining me on the show

0:53

today.

0:55

Hi, how are you? Thank you for having me.

0:58

So we're going to start off by if you

1:00

could please introduce yourself. You know, um,

1:02

tell me a bit about your hobbies, interests. Do you

1:04

work?

1:06

Well, sure. So, um, I,

1:08

um, have been living in Melbourne for 17

1:10

half years. Um, from,

1:12

um, I'm half UK, half New Zealand.

1:15

I work for an IT recruitment agency

1:18

as a national operations manager.

1:20

Um, and I've actually been with that company since I

1:22

moved here 17.5 years

1:24

ago. I'm turning

1:26

48 this year, and I've actually

1:29

got a goal of being 50 and fabulous.

1:31

Okay. Um, and it's approaching

1:34

a bit fast, so I'm

1:36

running out of time to, to

1:38

be this fabulous person I wanted to be,

1:40

but, um. Yeah. So my

1:42

hobbies are, um, I do,

1:44

I love exercising, I love getting out

1:46

and running. You wouldn't know that

1:49

if you met me, because I don't

1:51

have a very athletic figure. But, you know,

1:53

it doesn't matter. It's running for everyone.

1:55

And, um, I love getting out in nature

1:57

as well. Love trees.

2:00

Trees are the best bit in particular that you're

2:02

loving about nature.

2:04

Yeah, trees and all

2:06

sorts of animals. Creatures

2:09

and yeah, fresh air. I love

2:11

all that. Yeah.

2:13

So could you please introduce your

2:15

seeing eye dog and kind of tell me

2:18

about how long you've been working together? Um,

2:20

and you know what, uh, what you

2:22

like about it.

2:24

I have Winnie. Um,

2:27

also Winnie the dog, not Winnie the Pooh.

2:30

And, um, although she does do Pooh, obviously.

2:33

Um, she's, um. She's

2:35

a black Labrador retriever. Cross.

2:38

And she's a really happy,

2:40

healthy lady. Vegemite. You know, she's very

2:42

cheeky and, um,

2:45

she's just lovely. We just love

2:47

her. She's really sweet. She's very

2:49

funny. Um, she's got funny

2:52

little quirks.

2:54

Um, and she just makes us laugh

2:56

every day. She does silly little things,

2:59

you know? So what is.

3:00

What is what does a quirk kind of.

3:03

What? What does that mean?

3:05

She watches TV. I

3:07

don't know if you've ever had a dog. Yeah,

3:09

she. I've grown up with dogs all my life.

3:11

Not one of them watch TV. But she does.

3:13

She watches TV. You can

3:15

see her react to things.

3:17

I've seen puppies do it, but I. I

3:19

tended to find more. Adult

3:21

dogs grow out of it.

3:23

Yeah, I thought so too. But

3:26

she's I mean, she she might still

3:28

blow out of it. She's only turning two very

3:30

soon, so she's still young, but,

3:32

um. Yeah. You know, horses

3:34

had a bit of a growl. If she sees them on

3:37

the screen, other dogs get

3:39

a growl. Pigs.

3:41

That gets a bit of a stronger response.

3:43

Like like a, like a, like kind of menacing

3:45

or just like a kind of hello growl. Like, you

3:48

know, is she.

3:48

No. No. Menacing. No. So it's

3:51

almost like she thinks they're about to come into the room

3:53

and she's warning them not to.

3:54

Ah, whereas if she sees these things. Whereas

3:57

if she sees these things in real life, she's probably

3:59

would do her training and would, like, ignore it.

4:01

The opposite. Yes.

4:03

Maybe. Maybe it's the fact that it's like she's like, it's

4:05

here, but it doesn't smell. She's like, it's really

4:07

bizarre because like, I, I can't

4:09

smell it.

4:10

Very odd. Yeah, it's very odd.

4:13

I wonder if it's because my husband loves

4:15

his TV. It's like a 75 inch

4:17

one. So maybe it's because it's so big.

4:20

Yeah.

4:21

It's it's big enough that the, the

4:23

animals are like in giant googly.

4:26

Yeah. You know, and she's got

4:28

to protect us these things.

4:31

I mean I'm glad that someone is like. It

4:33

makes it when when your husband's just sitting there enjoying

4:35

the TV, she's actually being proactive. I

4:37

mean, I think that's quite good. You know, someone's going

4:39

to do the hard work.

4:41

But it's just hilarious because we'll be watching the show

4:44

and she'll be curled up asleep, you know,

4:46

fast asleep. And then there might

4:48

be something, a cat come on the screen or something

4:50

in the show, and you hear this little

4:52

oh. And

4:56

you don't even realize that she's awake. But

4:58

she must have just spotted it out of the corner of my eye.

5:00

You know, she's funny.

5:02

She's just sneaky. So, is she your first

5:04

seeing artist? How long have you been asking our dogs?

5:07

Handler.

5:08

So, um, no, I've only

5:10

had many since August last year, and she's

5:12

my second. Um, I,

5:15

um, got my first one back in 2015,

5:18

so it's been nearly nine

5:20

years now. Yes. Nine years.

5:23

Um, and that's I got. Yeah, she

5:25

was a little golden lab, um,

5:28

and she was our little pocket rocket. She was amazing.

5:32

Um, and she passed away beginning of

5:34

last year.

5:36

Oh, I'm sorry, I had a bit of a break.

5:38

Yeah. Thank you. She, um. She

5:40

was actually born with some, um, medical

5:43

issues, which we didn't realise until

5:45

a couple of years in having

5:47

her. And, um, she battled them

5:49

right up to the end. You know, she got very sick, but

5:52

she came back and she got back to guiding,

5:54

and we had another five years with her. She was

5:57

brave little things. She was wonderful.

6:00

Yeah. I'm. Well, I'm. Yeah. I'm sorry for your loss.

6:02

She sounds like she had a pretty good life

6:04

regardless. And we did it out. And

6:06

yeah, she.

6:08

Lived life to the full. You know, we

6:10

learnt a lot from her, you know what I mean? Not to

6:12

sweat the small stuff and just. Just get on with

6:14

it, you know?

6:15

Yeah. Just kind of keep on. Keep on

6:17

going on and wagging her tail regardless of whatever's

6:20

going on. Right.

6:21

That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Good.

6:25

So what made you decide

6:27

to apply, I guess the first

6:29

time. And then, um, you

6:31

know, reapply for a seeing eye

6:33

dog.

6:35

So, um. So

6:37

I started losing my vision in my mid 20s.

6:39

But for a long time I

6:41

wasn't I didn't need any mobility

6:44

support. Um, and then it sort

6:46

of got to the point where, um,

6:48

so my vision is it's tunnel

6:51

vision. So it's slowly becoming more and more

6:53

narrow. Um, and I got to the point where

6:55

I sort of needed some sort of

6:57

support, and I didn't really know what. So I met

6:59

with someone at Vision Australia and

7:02

they gave me a, um. Visibility

7:04

came. Um, and that

7:06

helped me for a bit, but, um,

7:08

I went out to the, um.

7:11

The supermarket once and I was

7:14

just standing, looking. This is what happened. This is how I

7:16

chose to have a dog, because I was standing looking

7:18

at the shelf, and I stepped forward

7:20

to pick something up off the shelf. And

7:23

in doing that, I must have cut someone else's

7:25

path off. He was walking past and

7:28

he. And he gave

7:30

me this abuse like.

7:34

And he just yelled at me. And then he walked

7:36

off and he just looked at me like I was

7:38

a piece of poop on his shoe.

7:40

And I sort of said, look, I'm sorry, I didn't

7:43

realize I didn't see you, but, you

7:45

know. And so after that, I

7:47

sort of walked down the street and I just sat down

7:50

and just walked. Right.

7:52

You know, it just really hit me. Yeah,

7:55

it was horrible. And so I rang my mom

7:57

and she was like, well, why don't you think about getting a dog

7:59

now? You know, just having a dog

8:01

will help other people realize that you

8:03

can't see.

8:04

Yeah.

8:05

And, um, and that was that was

8:07

it? Yeah. That made me decide to apply.

8:09

So and I was very lucky that I

8:11

got accepted and, and given the dogs,

8:14

you know, um. And

8:16

then to reapply after I lost

8:18

yellow. Ah, honestly, I

8:20

thought it would be years before I was ready because

8:23

it was so traumatic and devastating

8:25

when we lost her. And people

8:28

are straight away with saying you're going to get another one. I was

8:30

like, you know what? No,

8:32

I'm fine, you know? And but

8:35

then after a couple of months. God

8:38

is really, really anxious again. And,

8:41

um. Yeah, my my self-confidence

8:44

was growing. I wasn't leaving the office

8:46

at lunchtime and I just noticed

8:48

my. I

8:50

was general, I started feeling a little bit depressed again,

8:53

you know, and just walking around by

8:55

myself felt very lonely. So

8:58

I thought, you know what? Maybe I am ready.

9:00

Maybe I'll see if we can get another

9:02

dog. And yeah, very quickly

9:04

I got winning. So again, very

9:06

lucky.

9:08

I'm sure that to some kind

9:10

of, to some degree, like the dog,

9:12

you know, kind of whinny coming along would be

9:15

quite healing, I suppose.

9:17

Maybe.

9:18

Yeah, it was. And

9:20

what we were worried about was, you know.

9:23

We don't want her to replace Yara. And you know

9:25

what? She hasn't. There's still a Yara shaped hole

9:28

in my life. But because.

9:30

Because they're so different. You know what

9:32

I mean? Yeah. Um, I didn't realize how

9:34

different these dogs are. The personalities

9:36

are so different. And obviously

9:39

they've got the Labrador traits. They've got lots

9:41

of things that are similar. But Winnie

9:43

is just so different to Yara, and

9:46

she's just enriched my life in another way.

9:48

You know, I still miss Yara, but when

9:50

he's he's made us smile again

9:52

for sure. Yeah. She brought happiness back

9:55

to our house.

9:57

I'm sure it'll never come. Yeah. It's it's that's

9:59

the thing. It's not replacing. It's

10:01

not. It's not forgetting. It's just.

10:04

Yeah. Yeah. I

10:07

kind of like to think sometimes that like the other dogs

10:09

or the dogs you've had before her. Kind of.

10:11

You know, they'd want you to have

10:13

another dog and kind of like they'd want

10:16

to send another dog to you to know that you're okay.

10:18

Yes.

10:19

Also, when I was starting to

10:21

think about, um, you know, getting another

10:23

dog after yellow passed, I

10:26

put the call in to to seeing our dogs

10:28

and sort of said, look, um, what

10:30

do you think? But I wasn't sure.

10:33

I really wasn't sure whether I'd be accepted because

10:35

I'm not an NDIS customer.

10:37

Um, because, um, my,

10:40

I'm here on a New Zealand passport, so I'm

10:42

not accepted on the NDIS, so I wasn't

10:44

sure if Cedar would give me a dog.

10:47

Um, and so I was really worried about that. And then

10:49

one day I was just really down, depressed,

10:52

went, took myself out for a walk, and

10:54

I found myself walking a route that myself

10:56

and Yarra used to do. And

10:59

I was just crying my eyes out. I

11:01

was just crying and crying, crying. And then I get this

11:03

phone call while I'm crying. And

11:07

it's one of your looks and seeing eye dog saying,

11:09

yes, yeah, application's been accepted. We'll

11:11

find you a dog. And

11:15

honestly, I think that was Yara doing

11:18

that. She said she

11:20

sent them.

11:21

She was there with you at that time. Just

11:23

kind of in her own way.

11:25

Yeah. You know, I was there walking,

11:28

remembering, thinking about her crying.

11:31

And then I get this call to say that, yeah,

11:33

I'll get another dog. And I just honestly. It

11:36

may sound stupid, but I think these things happen,

11:39

you know, for a reason. Yeah.

11:44

So what is the kind of a,

11:46

I suppose, a typical day in the life

11:48

of you and Winnie, now that you've kind of you

11:50

are kind of together in a team.

11:53

We are. We're very much a team and

11:55

I live just on Southbank in Melbourne.

11:58

So um, and my office

12:00

is on College Street in the city,

12:02

so it's just a short walk in.

12:04

So, um, actually, well, I mean,

12:07

the day before we go to work, the day starts quite

12:09

early because when she seems to need

12:11

her breakfast at 630 in

12:13

the morning. No, I don't know

12:15

if other dog handlers have this experience,

12:17

but yes, we

12:20

have. We have tried to

12:22

extend this, but, um, you

12:25

make yourself quite a nuisance.

12:27

And in the end, we just have to get up

12:29

and feed her. So, um,

12:31

it means her up quite early, but that's fine.

12:33

It's just, um, sometimes I might go and jump

12:35

on the treadmill. We've got a gym in the building,

12:37

so I might do a treadmill run, or

12:40

I might just have a lazy coffee

12:42

and take my time getting up. But

12:44

we'll we'll walk to to work together

12:47

in the office. Um, and

12:49

then usually what happens when we get in the office is she

12:51

comes off the harness in the office, so,

12:54

um, she becomes like, just the office

12:56

dog, and she she just has

12:58

zoomies around the office. So often

13:01

when we get in the door, I take the harness off

13:03

and off she goes, and I can hear all these giggles

13:06

happening around the corner, you know? So

13:08

there just spreads joy everywhere

13:10

she goes. It's just lovely. In

13:12

fact, she's got a title at work

13:15

CMO. Chief

13:17

morale officer.

13:18

Ah!

13:20

Pepsi, ma'am. You know, she's got a few

13:23

toys that just lay on her bed there,

13:25

so she'll go and grab a toy and start

13:27

flinging it about, and she

13:29

just lightened the mood. It's just

13:31

lovely, you know. And then,

13:33

you know, once all that settles down, she just

13:35

comes into meetings with me, and

13:37

she just sleeps on the floor.

13:40

She'll have little belly rubs and,

13:42

um. Yeah, it's all pretty nice. Lovely.

13:45

And it's quite nice when you can have, you know, you can

13:48

really have that dog that can do both. You know, it

13:50

really is like a, you know. Um.

13:52

Yeah. Yeah. Going between work

13:54

and and play mode.

13:57

Yeah. That's right. And when we have people come to the

13:59

office for meetings and they get to meet

14:01

her and they're just delighted. It's very,

14:03

very rare that anyone doesn't like dogs,

14:05

you know? So they're like, yay,

14:08

a dog in the meeting, you know? So it's

14:10

just it's just adds that

14:12

extra happiness to your day.

14:16

So when you

14:18

kind of, I guess, think about the time that you've had,

14:20

um, together so far, do you have any

14:22

particular kind of best outing that,

14:25

um, springs to mind?

14:27

I'm definitely actually not long after I got

14:29

her. Um, I went on

14:31

a trail bus hike.

14:34

Um, so trail bus are a company that, um,

14:36

they they,

14:38

um, work with Achilles, which is a running

14:41

club. Running club? Um, with and

14:43

they put on trips out to, to the country

14:45

for people with vision impairment and,

14:48

um, you know, and it's just great because,

14:50

you know, we can't drive, we can't get ourselves

14:52

out there. So it's just really nice having

14:55

someone organize it and help us out.

14:57

So I did a trail hike

14:59

at Lake Mountain with Renee.

15:01

Oh, lovely.

15:02

And it was absolutely

15:05

she she was wonderful. And

15:07

she just thought it was the best thing ever. She pulled me up

15:09

the hills, which was very useful. And,

15:12

um, you know, she was just very excited

15:15

about it. And it was just really lovely to see how much

15:17

she was enjoying it as well as me. So,

15:19

yeah, that was a lovely outing. Yeah.

15:23

Do you have any kind of particular plans

15:25

for the future or trips you'd like to do together?

15:29

So, um, yeah, definitely.

15:31

Because. I

15:33

thought he talked about it. I like running and

15:35

I'm starting. I'm training. We need to run with me.

15:38

He's, um. So. She's young. She's very fit.

15:40

She's very healthy. She's got lots of energy. Um,

15:43

and she's actually very good

15:45

at running next to me. I'm not a fast runner, so

15:47

she just trots along next to me, and she seemed

15:49

to really enjoy it. So, yeah.

15:52

Um, maybe in the future

15:54

we'll do a trip where we do a

15:56

running event together. You know,

15:58

I'd really love that. Yeah,

16:00

I think that would be cool. And, um, I

16:03

don't know, probably just within Australia.

16:06

Um, rather than trying to worry about the overseas

16:09

stuff when you've got a dog

16:11

makes it a bit harder. But yeah.

16:13

The paperwork side of things even like

16:15

to go to New Zealand and back is, um, pretty

16:17

tricky. Yeah.

16:19

Yeah it is. I looked into it years

16:21

ago and I wanted to take Yarra over to see

16:23

my mum. Um,

16:25

and, and it was,

16:27

you know, we had to get all sorts of,

16:29

um, certification from the vets.

16:32

Blood was I didn't end up doing

16:34

it because this is what they were going to have to do. They're going to have

16:36

to take her blood and send it to somewhere

16:39

in WA to

16:42

be, I don't know. Yeah. And then

16:44

they would um, and that was going to cost $800

16:47

and all this sort of stuff. So it was just

16:49

yeah, I would only really do it

16:52

if I was going to be living

16:54

there for some time,

16:56

you know. Yeah. Yeah.

16:59

So so do you have any kind

17:01

of particular, I guess, funny memories

17:03

or, um, stories that you would like to share?

17:06

Um, yeah. So there is a funny one with Winnie.

17:08

She. She doesn't like the rain. I

17:11

don't think many dogs do, but,

17:13

um, there was one

17:15

morning, um, when we, um.

17:17

Before we moved to South Bank. So we have used

17:19

to have to get the tram to work, and we

17:21

got off the tram, and it was absolutely

17:24

bucketing down, as it does in Melbourne.

17:26

And, um, we really

17:28

stopped at the park where she usually does her pre-work.

17:31

Whoo! Yeah. And then so

17:33

she did. She did. It was pouring down the rain.

17:35

She did it. And then

17:37

I realized I didn't have a poo bag on

17:41

me. And and, you know, I could

17:43

have done what people do and just walk away and leave

17:45

it, but I just can't do that. I can't do that. So

17:48

I, um, I found a wad of tissues

17:50

in my bag. And you know what tissues do in the vein?

17:54

Oh, no. Oh.

17:55

So anyway, so I was. I'm there.

17:58

I'm bending over, trying to use this voice of tissues

18:00

to pick up this poop. And all of a sudden,

18:03

I feel this thing between my legs, and

18:05

it's Winnie. She's come in between my legs

18:07

to shelter from the rain.

18:10

It, Princess.

18:13

I know I'm. I'm trying to think

18:15

of this to. She's helping me to my legs.

18:17

I can't imagine what we must have looked

18:19

like to someone walking past.

18:22

Uh, no. And. And everyone's just like.

18:24

What?

18:25

And it really just does look like you are

18:27

absolutely the servant to this dog, you know?

18:30

Yeah, right. You know, and anyway,

18:32

I managed to pick it up without getting all of

18:34

my hands, which is a miracle.

18:36

I took it to the bin, and then I realized they've actually

18:39

got two bags attached to the

18:41

bin that you can use.

18:43

Oh no way.

18:45

Oh, no.

18:46

How how frustrating, y'all.

18:48

It's kind of like one of those things, like, had I known,

18:50

uh, my, you know, my last,

18:53

uh, you know, two minutes could have been very

18:55

different and much easier, right?

18:57

Yeah. So we sort of got out there and

18:59

then, you know, all the way, all the way up

19:01

to the office. From there, it was still chucking

19:03

it down. And so that meant that there

19:06

were sort of many rivers to cross when you were

19:08

crossing the road. And she,

19:10

she didn't want to get her feet in them. And

19:12

she wouldn't she didn't work out how to jump over.

19:14

So I had to jump first.

19:16

So her of

19:18

course, of course. Well, I mean, I liked

19:20

it. She's keeping you on your toes at at all

19:22

these steps. She's like, I am the boss

19:24

here.

19:25

Um, yeah. I

19:27

don't know what it is with her that she's,

19:29

um. She. When I first got her, she had

19:31

quite a lot of anxiety around certain things,

19:34

you know? So she was, um, not

19:36

sure about using the escalator, you know,

19:38

doors closing onto children. Small

19:40

children just terrified her. But.

19:43

So I think the reason why we

19:45

were matched is because she needed

19:47

a handler that was patient with these things

19:49

and understanding and, you

19:51

know, was able to help her through them. And we

19:53

have and we're really

19:55

good team now. And I think now

19:58

she wants to do all those things with me.

20:00

Is she kind of more confident with all of that

20:02

stuff to much more confidence?

20:04

And it's funny because now when we see an escalator,

20:06

she pulls me towards it and I'm like, I don't

20:08

actually want to go back right this time,

20:11

you know?

20:11

So but you, but you but you

20:13

can't be mad because she's trying her best for

20:15

you. You know, she's like, oh yes. She's like.

20:17

Yeah. She's like, we got this, mum,

20:19

I can do this one. I can do it, you know?

20:22

Yeah.

20:23

I just want to make you proud of me, you know?

20:25

Yeah. That's right, that's right. Yeah,

20:27

I mean that that was a lovely moment

20:29

when we were doing our training and

20:31

Steve, our trainer,

20:34

he sort of said, I can see when he

20:36

checking in with you, um,

20:38

when she's not sure about something. And you said

20:41

and she, she sees that you're not worried, so

20:43

she just carries on and gets on with it. And that's.

20:45

I thought that was really good. Yeah. So

20:47

that's why we're quite a good match. Yeah.

20:50

Really good. So

20:53

one of.

20:53

The things that has kind of led us to

20:55

speak to, to speak today is, um,

20:57

you've been featured recently in some

21:00

100 K your way

21:02

kind of, um, advertising, and

21:04

you're taking part in that challenge. You said

21:06

you're pretty active and.

21:07

Um, um.

21:08

And that type of thing. Could you tell us a

21:10

bit about, um, 100 K

21:13

your way and your motivation to do it?

21:15

Yeah, sure. So when I first

21:18

heard it, I one day, 100 K away, I

21:20

was like, yeah, I need to lose 100 K.

21:22

But no it wasn't. That was. Um,

21:27

actually if I lost 100 K, I'd be invisible.

21:30

I was going to.

21:31

Say, would you be.

21:32

Would you be, would you be pretty?

21:34

Not alive? Oh.

21:37

Yeah. Um, but

21:39

no, I, I just I just love the idea of

21:41

having a goal like that. And then

21:44

obviously, it's for a good cause,

21:46

isn't it? And it's an amazing cause. And

21:48

I personally have benefited from

21:51

the services that Vision Australia and seeing eye

21:53

dogs you know, provide. So

21:56

I'm more than happy to get involved

21:58

in this. And the more people

22:00

who do it or the more people who sponsor me,

22:03

um, the more we you guys in

22:05

Australia can help more other people

22:07

like myself. Yeah.

22:10

And it kind of feels good to say, yeah,

22:12

I'm going to do 100 K like like you're some

22:14

ultra marathon person.

22:18

Yeah. I mean you kind of.

22:21

I mean, it is it is your way. So you don't have to do it

22:23

all at once. But, you know, people don't need to know

22:25

that.

22:26

No. That's right. You sort of omit the whole

22:29

over the month of April. Just I'm going to do 100

22:31

K. Yay. Oh,

22:33

okay. Actually

22:37

I have been saying over the month of April, but a

22:39

lot of people are sort of, um, saying to me, oh

22:41

my God, that's amazing. Um,

22:43

that's such a long way. And yes, I know it

22:45

is, but it's like it does

22:47

sound like a long way. And it is if you do it

22:49

all in once, but if you break it down,

22:51

it's only about three K's a day.

22:54

But, you know, I mean, it's not that kind of. It's still

22:57

it's still like consistency, isn't it? Like you still

22:59

have to kind of make it, you know, even when it

23:01

is rainy and gross. You know, you've got to kind of do

23:03

it or you have to make it up the next day. It's

23:05

um. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely

23:08

donation worthy, isn't it?

23:10

Definitely, definitely. And you

23:13

know, I'm setting myself extra targets

23:15

with it because I'm also training

23:17

for Stadium Stomp. Have you heard of that?

23:20

I haven't. Yeah.

23:22

So Stadium Stomp is where

23:24

you go up and down the stairs of

23:26

the MCG. All

23:28

of them? Yes. It's

23:31

an event. And, um,

23:33

it's been done in June every year

23:35

for years now. I've done it a couple of times,

23:37

and I've signed up again this year, half

23:41

regretting it, but, um,

23:44

it's a lot. It's a it's a

23:46

really hard work. And,

23:48

you know, stairs are different to

23:50

a whole new ball game, isn't it?

23:52

Um, yeah.

23:54

So I'm going because I'm training

23:56

for that as well. I'm going to be doing

23:58

some of my 100 K as

24:00

steps.

24:01

Yeah. It's it's

24:04

like if you, if you did your 100 K as

24:06

um, as like repeat loops of,

24:08

uh, the thousand steps you know, the,

24:10

the walk in the dead dogs, whatever. Is it,

24:12

the Kokoda Trail now? Yeah.

24:15

That would be really hard. That would be.

24:18

That would be very challenging.

24:20

It really would. But I feel like I want

24:22

to do that. So thanks for reminding me. I've never

24:24

been out there and done them. I still

24:26

love you.

24:28

Yeah, I've I've, um, I've taken a few

24:30

dogs out there because it's otherwise not dog friendly,

24:32

but, um, as seeing my dogs in

24:34

jacket, um, I've brought a few

24:37

up as kind of, you know, stair training, I

24:39

guess, and like to see how they go for an endurance.

24:41

So, you know, my last puppy and one

24:43

of my last puppies in training went up there. So I feel like she's

24:46

ready for for a handler to do it. Um,

24:48

so maybe when he's ready for you to do it.

24:50

Yeah. When he would love it. And she could probably

24:53

pull me up, so that would be good.

24:57

So why? So, um, I think you

24:59

you kind of mentioned it before, but why should others

25:01

join the challenge or support you?

25:04

By donating.

25:05

Um. Well,

25:08

misery loves company, doesn't it? No. Um.

25:11

Well, I mean, the more people we've got it, and

25:14

it is, it is good fun to do

25:16

it as a team as well. I know that

25:18

Winnie's carer, Robin, has got a team

25:20

of people at her work doing it with her,

25:22

and I guess that makes it easier

25:24

to get up and do it because other people are making

25:27

you accountable. Um, but

25:29

yeah, everyone should do it. It's doable.

25:31

You know, it's. And it's definitely

25:34

a very worthy cause.

25:36

So just to kind of finish off,

25:39

um, is there any message that

25:41

you have, um, for,

25:44

I guess, people that are interested in,

25:46

um, seeing eye dogs or or you know, what you

25:49

think the general public should know?

25:51

Yeah, sure. So, um. Honestly.

25:55

I mean, obviously it's it's the,

25:57

the obvious one is, you know, remember,

25:59

if the dog is wearing a harness, then don't

26:01

distract them or talk to them. Talk

26:04

to the handler instead. Um, but

26:06

a personal one for me is, um,

26:08

because I don't outwardly appear to be

26:11

vision impaired people

26:13

when I'm with when people assume that I'm

26:15

training her. Um,

26:18

and so they then start asking me about

26:21

what I'm doing to train her and how it's going

26:23

and all that sort of thing. And then when I

26:25

explain that she's actually mine, she's my

26:27

guide and she's guiding me,

26:30

um, it all gets very awkward. And they're like, oh

26:32

my gosh, I'm speaking to a blind person. Now, what

26:34

do I say? You know, and, um,

26:37

I just want people to realize that, you know,

26:39

it's just it's fine to ask questions, but just

26:41

don't make assumptions, please. Because,

26:45

um, I love talking about my

26:47

experiences with Winnie, but,

26:49

um, you know, just

26:52

ask questions openly

26:55

and don't make assumptions. And

26:57

then the other thing that I wanted, people who,

27:00

um, who who are

27:02

our puppy carers and the volunteers

27:04

at VA and seeing eye Dog and

27:06

people who donate their just a

27:09

huge, massive thank you.

27:11

Honestly, even the smallest

27:13

donation of money or of your time,

27:16

you know, all adds up to make a big difference

27:18

to people like me.

27:21

Well, thank you so much for kind of coming

27:24

on and chatting and sharing your story. And

27:26

um, best of luck for 100

27:28

K your way. Do you have links to your page

27:30

that people can come and donate to?

27:33

I sure do. Yes. Um, I

27:35

should be able to read up the URL to you

27:37

now, but I can't remember it. But, um.

27:42

I think if you just googled hundred k your way

27:44

and Sophie Thomas and I think it would come

27:46

up and you'd be able to donate to me and it'd be very

27:48

much appreciated. Anyone who donates

27:50

more than 50 can set me a challenge.

27:52

An extra challenge so you can make

27:54

me feel myself doing a silly run. Or

27:56

you can make me put something on and running

27:59

it. If you donate 50 or more, I'll

28:01

do it. Not naked. I draw the

28:03

line.

28:04

No, no, no, I think PG

28:06

13 seems quite reasonable, doesn't it?

28:09

Well, thank you for joining me on the show. And, um.

28:11

Yeah, best of luck.

28:13

No worries. Thank you very much, Harriet.

28:20

If you've been listening to the Seeing Eye Dog show on

28:23

Vision Australia Radio, I hope you

28:25

enjoyed my interview with Sophie.

28:27

If you'd like to find out more about seeing Eye Dogs,

28:29

the work we do, or how you can help, head to

28:31

our website at said Vision

28:33

Australia Talk. If you'd like

28:36

to donate to Sophie's

28:38

fundraising page, including donating $50

28:41

and challenging her to something

28:44

interesting or fun, you

28:46

can head to her page,

28:48

which is at Fundraising Vision

28:50

Australia. Org forward slash

28:52

fundraisers forward slash

28:54

Sophie Thomas forward slash 100

28:56

K your way. The link will

28:59

be in our podcast page,

29:01

or you can head to the

29:03

fundraising page at Vision Australia.

29:05

Org and search Sophie

29:08

Thomas in the bar. Thank

29:10

you for listening and don't forget to tune

29:12

in. Same time next week for another

29:15

episode of the Seeing Dogs show on

29:17

Vision Australia Radio.