SADIE, the Bolton-trained guide dog of blind MP David Blunkett, helped her master to open an exhibition to celebrate 75 years since the first guide dogs started work in Britain.
The black Labrador, who has been at the former Home Secretary's side for three years, was one of several guide dogs which gathered with their owners at London's Docklands Museum.
An exhibition at the museum charts the history of guide dog training through three-dimensional, touch-sensitive and audio exhibits.
Mr Blunkett said guide dogs gave their owners 'dignity, independence and equality of opportunity'.
Sadie is Mr Blunkett's fifth guide dog and is the half-sister to his previous dog Lucy, who retired to Bolton.
Sadie was trained at Bolton's Guide Dog for the Blind training centre in Lowndes Street, Heaton, by Val Woolrich. She described Sadie as a 'workaholic' making her the ideal choice to fit in with Mr Blunkett's hectic schedule.
Guide dog training started in 1931 in Wallasey, Cheshire, by four blind pioneers.
The Guide Dogs for the Blind association was founded three years later and, since then, the lives of 21,000 visually impaired people have been transformed.
The exhibition runs until February 17 and will tour the country for the rest of the anniversary year.
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