AS A visually impaired person, I find that people often offer me help perhaps across the road or something like that.

I very much appreciate the offer of help and I don’t want to seem ungrateful but sometimes it really freaks me out when people grab me by the arm and start tugging me this way or that. It can be very disorientating.

It might be accompanied by: “I’ll help you sir. It’s this way’.

They would have probably taken me completely by surprise because I wouldn’t have seen them coming.

I also have very reduced feeling in my left arm because of the stroke that I had a few years ago and might not even feel their touch properly.

But I will feel my whole body being tugged to one side and I won’t even know why.

It might seem a strange thing but if somebody touches my guide dog or even gestures towards him that is even more annoying to me.

I’ll explain why.

Imagine you were driving a car with a young toddler sat in the passenger seat next to you.

Would you let go of the steering wheel and say to the toddler: “Why don’t you have a go at steering?”

Anything that distracts my dog Ritchie from his concentration or even turns his head is just like having somebody tampering with the steering on your car or the brakes.

I’m holding his harness. I’m sensitive to every move that he makes.

I can’t see what’s going on in front of me so if somebody comes and just puts their hand out towards my dog in a friendly manner, that can be very distracting and disorientating from me.

If he suddenly lurches to one side or another he pulls me too and I don’t know why.

I appreciate people are just being friendly and want to say hello to my dog, but really it’s not acceptable.

So I’d ask people please keep your hands to yourselves.

It may seem ridiculous but even just smiling at my dog can distract him because in the busy marketplace, for instance, he would love to be off duty and to have the chance to say hello to everybody, but he’s actually working and needs to concentrate on his duties.

I always make sure that Ritchie has plenty of opportunity to socialise with people and other dogs and have time out of his harness – all so that he can just have fun. So if you see somebody walking with a guide dog in a harness, leave them well alone.