These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience – the local community. By the mid 1970s, Jill was a fully-fledged member of the Executive Council of the National Federation of the Blind. Thus the book fulfils the equally necessary if not more important function of trying to change the received image the general public has of the blind as people unable to work, in receipt of incapacity and other benefits. If you enjoy a heart warming read or you have any interest in blind issues this is the book for you.

Before it happened, I loved ballroom and latin dancing, and I used to catch the train to London every day to do my job as a chef. By constantly focusing on the difficulties she encountered at every stage of her life and how to overcome them, the author points the way ahead to all those in a similar position. The briefings are heard by blind and partially-sighted people across the UK, the briefings are mainly downloaded and used by local talking newspapers and radio stations in their own audio publications and programmes.Anna Firth, Tory MP for Southend West, has led a campaign to see the 82-year-old get a new guide dog and helped Mrs Allen-King be placed on the “priority list”. She has had an impact across the world by coming up with the concept of textured pavements at crossings, which are now commonplace on many pavements and help blind and partially sighted people stay safe. She was also instrumental in getting the Public Utilities Street Works Act passed which, for the first time, provided stringent safety measures for pedestrians in the presence of road works. Finally able to venture out with confidence, she was shocked by how few places allowed guide dogs and began campaigning for better access to libraries, restaurants and public spaces. A blind Pride of Britain winner has slammed plans for the mass closure of rail ticket offices after being left stranded and “petrified” at a station.

Jill Allen-King, 83, could face a wait of up to two years for her next companion when her beloved dog Jagger, 11, is retired from service. Pioneering activist has spent her life campaigning on behalf of other blind and partially-sighted people, with remarkable results. Then, when she was 24, all this came to an abrupt halt when her sight went completely on, of all days, her wedding day. On my first day out with Topsy, we were refused entry to the local library – Jacqueline went in on her own.She is on familiar terms with ministers, and when she shakes them by the hand, she does not let go until she has finished with them. But, amazingly, she bounced back after the birth of her daughter and regained her independence after getting her first guide dog. August 2010 - Jill Allen-King MBE was interviewed on The Michael Ball Show, ITV 1, about her book 'Just Jill'. Born into poverty during the war years, she lost her left eye around the time of her first birthday, after contracting measles. At the end, one is left with an overwhelming impression of someone who, by force of circumstances, was thrown into a role for which she was not originally intended – a challenge she met with admirable energy, endurance and strength of character.