During Volunteers' Week Jemma Walton found out what volunteers do there - and how you can help.

I was talking to a stunningly beautiful volunteer this week when she gave me a funny look and then started sniffing and licking my hand. She then turned round, put her bum in my face and stuck her nose in a wastepaper basket.

But this was no human volunteer who had lost the plot: this was a doggy volunteer, one of city's many guide dogs.

Eight-year-old Fiona is owned by Juliet Winter, who volunteers in the Peterborough branch of the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), in Orton Southgate.

Juliet has been blind since she was 14, after glaucoma got out of control and built up excessive pressure in her eyes.

"I remember the last day I saw," she said. "It was Wednesday, November 6 1985 and I went into hospital for a routine operation to reduce the pressure in my eye. I thought that I would come out with better vision than I'd had before.

"But I came out unable to see anything at all. The last things I remember seeing are things on TV, and my parents visiting me. But I didn't consciously look at things carefully – if I'd known what was going to happen, then I would have.

"I went to a blind school, and they tried to tell me that I would lose my sight completely one day, and forced me to learn braille, but I wouldn't because I didn't believe them.

I was young and never thought I'd be completely blind."

Juliet (37) is a great example of someone who has benefited from help given by volunteers – and she has also done her bit as far as putting her own time into the charity is concerned.

She said: "Being blind is an inconvenience, no matter what anyone says. There are times when I think

'If only I could have a pair of eyes for one minute,' when I'm trying to do something fiddly.

"Like at the moment. My husband is blind, and we thought someone was coming to decorate our house, and so we got everything ready, but then they fell ill, and now we don't know when it'll get done and the house is upside down.

"If I could see I could just do it in a day, it would be the simplest thing. But I can't."

Juliet rebelled when she woke up that fateful day to find her sight gone, and started drinking and doing all the usual things that naughty teenagers do.

Two things had to happen in her life before she came to terms with herself and turned her life round.

One was going for tests at a high-flying eye clinic, where doctors told her that there really was no way back for her, and she would be blind for the rest of her life, and the second was meeting the love of her life, Robert.

"A lot of the talk of love is based on how a person looks," she said. "Your eyes meet across a crowded room, things like that. But for us, we are both from Yorkshire, we support the same football team – Hull FC – and we go well together, and that will keep us together."

The couple live a happy and independent life together, with the help of gadgets such as a talking microwave and their two guide dogs Fiona and Lex, who are, of course, volunteers of a kind as well.

"We couldn't be who we are without them," said Juliet.

"Any blind person will tell you that their relationship with their guide dog is like no other relationship in the world."

The two welcome volunteers into their home, for example an IT volunteer popped round to sort out their sound card when it fell out, and he also helped them fill in some Direct Debit forms.

Little things, but things that have made all the difference.

And while Juliet had a job for a couple of years, she has depression on and off and would find full-time work too much. Robert is a paid RNIB personal assistant.

"I do have bad days," said Juliet. "But when I know I've got to go in and help out I try to not have a bad day. I've been volunteering there for five years now, and it gives me a focus, and I enjoy the time in the office, meeting new people and having a role in the community.

"And helping the charity that has helped me is good as well, whether it's with general office duties or putting together mailshots.

"If anyone has got sight problems or any other disability and aren't sure about volunteering I would encourage them to go for it.

"It does sighted people good to realise that blind people haven't got a contagious disease. The more of us who are out there volunteering, the better!"

See also: How you can help the RNIB 04 June 2008.

For more information on the work the charity does, visit www.rnib.org.uk.