Thank you so much for visiting my Just Giving page!

In Summer 2023 I will be swimming one length of the Tal Y Llyn lake in mid Wales - which equates to a 1 mile open water swim.  I am doing this in memory of my Underdog Dolly, who sadly passed away very suddenly whilst we were on holiday near the lake for Christmas 2021. 

I have done many challenges for Love Underdogs (and many other animal charities), including two Santa Dashes with my dogs Meg, Alfie, Roxi and Stella, the Race for Life with my dog Alfie and a 5k run with my dog Rudy.  Dolly was the only one of my dogs that hadn't participated in a challenge with me.  She died very unexpectedly before I got the chance to do a challenge with her.  

Instead, I am doing this swim FOR her.  It will not be easy for me - I'm not a naturally strong swimmer and I'll be swimming a few times a week to gear myself up for this.  I've never swum anywhere near a mile long before and doing this will take me out of my comfort zone.  But I'm absolutely determined to do this for Dolly.  I know she will be with me in spirit on my swim.  

I'd love to raise some money for Love Underdogs - a final gift from Dolly to thank them for rescuing her and making her a member of our family, where she had a safe, happy, love-filled life.

Big thanks for all your kind support.  It really means the world and will spur me on to do this in Dolly's memory as a final goodbye to her!

Becky xx

Our story:-

We became involved with Love Underdogs in 2014 when we adopted our dog Dolly from them.  

Adopting Dolly was a real eye opener for us as we'd never experienced a dog with confidence issues before and Dolly was a nervous wreck! Distrusting of all strangers, she would wet herself when we tried to pick her up, bolt away from anyone she didn’t know and was terrified of everything in the house – from the noise of the toilet flushing to the TV! She would hiss at our other dogs when they went near her and she refused to move from the spare room for three days after we brought her home. But with time, patience and loads of love, Dolly slowly came out of her shell and learnt to trust us.  She learned to play and the joy of toys, became cheeky and mischievous and grew into a reasonably confident, happy, unbelievably affectionate dog.

Watching Dolly change was so rewarding that in July 2016 we went to Brasov, Romania to work voluntarily in the "Millions of Friends" Romanian shelter affiliated with Love Underdogs. Whilst there, we fell in love with Rudy and Stella, a pair of 2-year-old best friends and even though we already had four dogs, we couldn’t resist adding them to our family!

We have supported Love Underdogs ever since through bucket collections, monthly donations and a number of other challenges including cycling from Vietnam to Cambodia and trekking the Great Wall of China. 

Thank you for reading our story and thank you for your incredible support. We are truly grateful, as are Love Underdogs and every single dog they are able to help from your kind donations.

Becky & Neil
(Meg, Alfie, Roxi, Dolly, Rudy, Stella & Marley)
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