A PACK of hearing dogs made their way to the Specsavers store in West Street last month to help raise awareness during International Assistance Dog Week (August 5 to 11).

Customers visited the store to meet the dogs, as well as having the chance to sponsor a puppy, take part in a raffle and tombola, and have their faces painted. More than £450 was raised in total, around £350 of which was raised when Specsavers donated £1 from every sight test to the Bordon-based Hearing Dogs for Deaf People’s (HDFDP) North Hants-Surrey Borders Volunteer Group, which organised the event.

Nicholas Orpin, HDFDP’s community fundraising manager for the Farnham area, said: “We’d like to extend a big thank you to the store and its lovely staff.

“Every staff member brought in something for the raffle, which was a huge success with lots of tickets sold.

“The store also contacted various other businesses in the area who kindly contributed items for the raffle, so it was a great community effort and one that has really helped spread the word about what we do as a charity. We’d also like to thank our volunteers, who were on hand on the day to talk to Specsavers customers about what the charity does, which was a great way to raise awareness of what our dogs do to change the lives of deaf people. Overall the event well incredibly well and everyone involved did a fantastic job of raising valuable awareness of Hearing Dogs for Deaf People.”