If your best friend of 17 years asked you to help out with guiding a blind person on a little walk you wouldn't hesitate to say yes - would you? Well, that's just what Jamie Douglas, one of our Llanwern drivers, said. Little did he realise that the walk was along the 96 miles of the West Highland Way.

Never one to shirk a challenge Jamie, acting as first aider and map reader, duly went on the week-long walk helping his friends Colin and blind Scott together with guide dog Travis. Walking for nine hours each day often over difficult terrain was not easy physically or mentally particularly since Scott had to be given a running commentary all the way but all of them were determined to become record breakers. This was the first time a blind person and his dog had walked the whole of the West Highland Way.

Jamie admits that the first hour of each morning was a killer due to putting blistered feet back into your boots but reckons that 'it soon became bearable once your feet went numb!' Despite a few scary moments, like traversing the narrow ledge with a shear drop into Loch Lomond and the hard climb on the 'Double Staircase' they all had a fantastic time.

On completion they were all pleased that they had managed to raise £2,000 in sponsorship for the Guide Dogs for the Blind charity but were even more pleased when further donations started to roll in mainly as a result of a web-site diary of the trip through the eyes of Travis, the dog. They finally ended up raising over £10,000. Jamie has asked us to "thank all at Llanwern for their kind donations and Zac Brown and Dai Davies for the time off to do the walk".