A Dartmouth woman is sharing her story in the hopes of raising awareness about the difficulties visually impaired people face each day.

Linda McCluskey made headlines last year when a taxi driver refused to accommodate her and her seeing-eye dog. Now she says she faced another challenge this week - this time at a Halifax hospital.

McCluskey lost most of her sight about five years ago. Since then, getting back and forth to appointments has been a challenge.

“I asked the woman at the service counter there where I was and they said, ‘you’re at the Halifax Infirmary,’” explains McCluskey.

McCluskey had taken an Access-A-Bus but had been dropped off at Halifax Infirmary instead of at the Victoria General Hospital. Once she realized a mistake had been made, she took a taxi to the Victoria General Hospital.

“I’m a little bit panicky because I’m late and these specialists, you know, you’re lucky to get in to see them,” says McCluskey.

McCluskey explained her situation to the information officer and requested a porter to take her to her appointment.

“She said, ‘you’ll have a long wait, there’s a long wait,’” says McCluskey

Since she was already late for her appointment, she decided to try and get to the right place on her own. That is when Jeff Cogswell found her.

“I thought she was going to cry,” says Cogswell. “She seemed very confused, which understandably so. She had no idea where she was or how to get where she was going.”

Cogswell was on his way to his own appointment, but made sure McCluskey got to hers as well. He was surprised no one else had tried to help her.

“She was standing ten feet from the security desk, with security people in there and there were people walking by left, right, and centre,” says Cogswell.

Capital Health could not comment on the situation directly, but they say porter services can be booked at the information desk, or in advance.

“We will respond as quickly as possible. Our average response time is about 15 minutes once we’re called,” says Jane Pryor, operations support director for Capital Health.

McCluskey says she often has to rely on the kindness of strangers like Cogswell and was disappointed by the way she was treated by hospital staff.

“You would just think they would maybe take the extra step to help out.”

McCluskey says she hopes sharing her story will help improve services for the visually impaired.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Priya Sam