After three months of hard work and with the help of hundreds of BBC Radio Stoke listeners, the CSV Action Desk have raised the 1,500 mobile phone needed to train a guide dog. Read about Moby's life as a guide dog in his diary here -Thanks to everyone who came up with potential name for our guide dog with Gladstone, Stanley and Beswick all popular choices but it was Mrs D Marson, who took inspiration from our collection of mobile phones to find the perfect name for our pup… MOBY! On the 5th December 2005 ‘Moby’ was born and he is now taking his first steps to becoming a fully fledged guide dog. The Black Labrador is the offspring of ‘Quinn’ a male black lab and ‘Hopeful’, his Golden Labrador mother. We have now collected well over 2,500 mobile phones for the cause which will all go to help blind and visually impaired people all over the UK. So, as long as you keep bringing 'em in, we'll take them! How Did It All Begin?We were originally approached by Guide Dogs For The Blind who asked if we could help promote their appeal for old phones. We thought we can go one better than that! and decided to launch our very own campaign. The response has been fantastic and we are in fact well on the way towards raising enough phones for a second dog! So, you heard it here first don't give up on us - we still need those out-of-date mobiles and maybe we can raise enough to fund another dog. Making A DifferenceYou'll hear the phrase 'making a difference' all the time from the CSV Action Desk team, and a guide dog is an obvious example! To someone who is blind or visually impaired, having a guide dog can give a new lease of life. Suddenly you have freedom to go where and do what you please without having to rely on another person to help. It's impossible to understate the difference this makes to someone! Far and WideIt would seem that our appeal has reached even further than we could have guessed. A postcard to the Kevin Fernihough show on BBC Radio Stoke demonstrates that people were thinking of us even while they were on holiday!! House-brickThe appeal is obviously a serious one with a clear benefit to whoever will eventually get our guide dog but it's not been without humour either!! We began to notice one or two of phones that were coming our way were - shall we say - on the rather large side! One phone in particular dates back to the 1980's and it's huge!! We went out and about in Hanley to see if anyone would swap our house-brick for their modern phone. We rather thought its retro-chic looks would persuade someone - but the answer was a resounding NO!!!! Still Going StrongWe might have reached our target but we're so impressed by the response from our listeners that we're just going to keep on collecting. The number’s 01782 221225 and we’re looking forward to hearing from you... Dave Hamer/Jim Salveson (CSV team) | 
