Hi, my name is Gabe – I’m only Gabriel when I’m in trouble with my Mum!

I am 8 years old and I suffer from Retinitis Pigmentosa. You may know this as ‘tunnel vision’, which is a whole lot easier to get out than Retinitis Pigmentosa. I have poor peripheral vision and glaring light really hurts my eyes.

My family has been raising puppies for Guide Dog training for a couple of years, so when I was diagnosed the first call my Mum made was to Guide Dogs Victoria. Since then Guide Dogs Victoria’s Children’s Mobility team has become a really important and vital source of support and practical advice for me and my family.

“They do so much for us”, my Mum is always telling people.

The Children’s Mobility team are pretty cool!

Besides organising regular excursions for kids like me with vision impairment to learn how to get out and about in the city, the awesome Children’s Mobility team run camps where children like me get to sleep over at the Guide Dogs Victoria residential facility for a whole week! It’s so much fun getting to make new friends. I learn a lot as well, building the crucial skills to be as independent as possible.

My sight is continuing to get worse, however I’m lucky Guide Dogs Victoria has a new program for boys and girls just like me; ‘Test Drive a Guide Dog’ has been specifically designed for young people who are vision impaired. It’s unique to Guide Dogs Victoria – and its training methods are a world first.

Through the program, me and my friends aged 12 to 19 can:

• Experience life with a Guide Dog at a crucial stage, when we are building the foundations of a life coping with low vision or blindness and;
• Overcome challenges that will help strengthen our confidence and increase our mobility skills, as we learn to work with a Guide Dog and;
• Reach for the stars and look forward to achieving our full potential!

I feel like a very lucky boy and the Guide Dog puppies we look after for training are my best friends – who knows, I may get to train with one of them one day!