SIXTY years ago, Jill Allen-King awoke on her wedding day, put on her dress and read her good luck cards, unaware it would be the last day she would be able to see again.
Devastatingly, Jill lost her remaining eyesight at just 24-years-old after losing her vision in one eye following a bout of measles and pneumonia as a child.
The sudden and severe eye blockage - linked to glaucoma - sent Jill to the hospital on her wedding day and robbed her of her sight.
Despite spending seven years housebound and totally reliant on others, Jill's life was changed when she received her first guide dog, Topsy, in 1972.
Guide - Jill and late guide-dog Jagger (Image: Newsquest)
Since then, the committed campaigner has dedicated her life to helping blind people across the UK.
In 1983 Jill was made an MBE, before becoming an OBE in 2011 and winning a Pride of Britain in 2022 as a result of relentless campaigning.
Six decades on from the day that shaped her life Jill, 84, has reaffirmed her dedication to voluntary work and campaigning.
Jill said: “I am not happy today; it would be my diamond wedding anniversary.
“I don’t have a diamond wedding because I went blind at mine, at the Westcliff Hotel, things have been different since then.
“I was sighted for 24 years, it was totally different, and I had reasonable sight in one eye, I worked in London as a cook, I could ride a bike.
“I have had to get used to it and even now it is so difficult.”
Jill has campaigned to allow the access of support animals into public spaces such as libraries and helped initiate tactile paving at pedestrian crossings across the UK.
The determined campaigner is currently pushing to increase the prevalence of tactile paving, after realising that dangerous roads near her don't have it.
"I have talked to people who have seen tactile paving on holiday but I don't have it down my own road, I have written to councillors on this and kept writing every month, it is so dangerous as when you are blind you cannot tell when you are at the curb edge," she said.
Jill added that she has given countless speeches on blindness, but if asked to summarise what blindness is, “it is tiring.”
Her beloved guide dog, Jagger, was retired last year before passing away in February.
She has remained on the waiting list for a new guide dog since, but the lack of support she has received has reinvigorating her passion to push for improvements in the system.
“I won’t stop now, I have to campaign and do something," she said.
“This is the first time in 52 years that I don’t have a dog, I am really angry that despite all the money I have raised and for all the people I have encouraged and the campaigns I have run, I don’t have a dog.”
Jill's husband, Elvin, was also blind before surgery helped him partially regain his eyesight.
Yesterday evening, they went out for a "commemorative meal" to mark 60 years since the day Jill's life changed. Jill added: “Elvin was able to partially regain his sight, he could read labels for me, he could tell me colours and he can take me out for walks.
“I have to be guided, I am hopeless on my own.
“For the first seven years, I never went outside, I never had the confidence.
“Thing have changed so much.”
As part of the Southend pensioner’s campaign group, Jill has vowed to continue her voluntary work.
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