Celebrating two years of fundraising for Guide Dogs

We are celebrating two years of fundraising for our corporate charity of 2024 and 2025, with a total of £34,837 raised for Guide Dogs.

We threw our support behind Guide Dogs by raising funds and creating awareness to help the charity provide a range of services to people living across the region with a vision impairment.

“Guide Dogs is a crucial resource, with dedicated volunteers and life-changing dogs to help people live actively, independently and well,” said Richard Tyldsley, Bluestar general manager. 

“We have had a close association with the charity for some time because we allow its team to hop on-and-off our buses with their trainee guide dogs to help them get comfortable using public transport. It’s all part of making our buses accessible to all - and we understand the issues faced by those who are partially sighted when they travel by bus. 

“Guide Dogs was voted to be our corporate charity for 2024 and 2025 by my Bluestar colleagues, who hold it in very high regard, so we are thrilled to have been able to raise almost £35,000 towards this vital resource.

“Bluestar team members have made a superb effort over the past two years - raising money through many different activities - and we even named two trainee guide dog puppies - ‘Blue’ and ‘Star’. A third puppy - named Andrew after our late managing director Andrew Wickham MBE who passed away in 2025 - has also just been born. 

“Many rely heavily on these special dogs, and others like them, to help them go about their daily lives. We are confident both Blue and Star will offer their future humans a more independent and active life and we wish them much success as they continue their training.”

Gemma Spencer, community fundraising manager at Guide Dogs, added: “As a charity, we rely almost entirely on public donations to keep our vital services for people with sight loss running.

“A huge thank you to everyone at Bluestar for raising such an incredible amount. We’re very grateful for all the team’s efforts.”

Our official partnership with Guide Dogs has ended but we will continue to support the charity with puppy training sessions at our depot as well as allowing dogs and their trainers to travel on our buses.

We will spend the next two years fundraising for Young Lives vs Cancer, which we have named as our corporate charity for 2026 and 2027. 

For more information about Guide Dogs, please visit guidedogs.org.uk