Postie Stuart ready for special delivery

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Postie Stuart ready for special delivery

Feb 20 2008

By Lynda Nicol


POSTMAN Stuart Steel is well used to making special deliveries ... many of them to a particularly vital cause.

The 45-year-old, who works at East Kilbride Delivery Office, has helped raise an astonishing £50,000 for the Guide Dogs for the Blind.

And now the East Kilbride postie’s first class fundraising efforts have put him in the frame for a prestigious award.

Stuart, from Gardenhall, has made it to the final shortlist in the fundraising category for the Royal Mail’s 1st Class People Awards, which cover the whole of the country.

The awards are designed to celebrate those postmen and women who are the unsung heroes in their communities.

And Stuart is certainly a hero to Guide Dogs for the Blind, his chosen charity.

For the postie has helped raise £50,0000 over the last four years in his support of the charity.

Much of the money has been raised with the support of staff at the Centre One tax office in East Kilbride, who are long-time supporters of Guide Dogs for the Blind.

And last year, Stuart, along with a former Royal Mail colleague and now tax officer at Centre One, Scott Cunningham, walked the 262 miles of the Pennine Way, raising £11,000, the latest of his fundraising efforts for the dog charity.

Scott, who is blind, was accompanied by his guide dog Travis on their trek.

And with £5000 needed to train just one guide dog, Stuart is determined to keep up his good fundraising work and is already planning ahead for his next venture on behalf of the charity.

“The new-found independence a blind person enjoys when they get their guide dog makes it all so worthwhile,â€