Hi!

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page and helping me get the chance to be utterly masochistic and trudge up and down large hills in Nepal. 

So why raise money for Dogs for the Disabled? What do they do? Why should we help them?

Dogs for the Disabled trains dogs to carry out a range of practical tasks to assist disabled children and adults - this could be anything from opening doors, emptying washing machines to retrieving dropped objects that could be essential, mobile phones, medicines, inhalers. They have trained over 400 dogs to date, and currently have over 200 working in England and Wales.

Their puppies - labradors and golden retrievers - spend the first year of their lives with a puppy socialiser. At around a year old, they come into the national training centre in Banbury, Oxfordshire where they spend six to eight months learning all the skills they will require to help a disabled person.

It does, however, cost approximately £10,000 to take an eight week old puppy through to a fully qualified assistance dog working for its disabled owner.

But what is £10,000 compared to a new friendship, a new security and aide for someone who might never have had such a thing?

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

If you can't donate through JustGiving, please let me know and we'll sort something else out.

Thank you, thank you,

Becky (and Hobbit, who is an assistance dog in so many ways, just not official ones!)