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Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. I am running/plodding in the Virgin London Marathon on 22 April 2012 (yikes!) and I am putting myself through this in order to raise much needed funds for a charity which is very important to me. I would like to tell you a little bit about the charity and why it is so important that I achieve my aim of raising £1000+ on their behalf. In 2009 my husband and I rescued (another!) dog in need of a home from our local animal shelter. His name was/is Alfie and he was an 18 month old Patterdale Terrier (although we are convinced that there is a little poodle in him!!). He came to join us and our 3 year old Jack Russell (Millie) and our 8 year old Labrador (Daisy). For the first 6 months we had no concerns over Alfie’s health but then he started to have difficulty with his breathing and keeping food or water down. We immediately took him to our local vets and they set about trying to find out what was wrong with him. Over the next few weeks we tried several things but nothing seemed to work and he was constantly coughing up any food or water that he had and as such was losing weight very quickly. It got to the point where our vet felt that she could do no more for him as she suspected that what he had was 'Mega Oesophagus' and there is very little that can be done to manage this problem without being able to find out the root cause which is found in less than 20% of cases. My husband and I were determined that our little boy should have every chance to live through this and as such we asked if we could be referred anywhere for this to be looked at in more detail. Our vet was aware of the experts at the University of Cambridge Veterinary School and said that she would try and get us a referral there. Surely enough this happened and we got in the car and headed straight down for a consultation. The staff were amazing and made it clear that they had seen this issue before and would do whatever they could to try and help Alfie through it (although, clearly making no promises). This lifted us enormously as by now Alfie was skin and bones and could barely do anything on his own. He was to stay at the school overnight while they performed some tests and then we would speak with them in the morning to see how things went. Unfortunately things were slightly worse in the morning and as such it was decided that Alfie should remain at the school for the rest of the week and tested further. It was touch and go all week and my husband and I feared the worst but the school kept in constant touch with us and we were allowed to call them whenever we wanted to find out how he was doing. This made an awful situation that little bit better as nothing was hidden from us. By the end of the week the vets at the school had diagnosed Alfie with 'Mega-Oesophagus' and this was not great news however, the school gave us the options. We could either have him put to sleep as the risk of him getting aspiration pneumonia (breathing food and water into his lungs) was high or we could attempt to manage him at home and see if it was something that would get better over time. There were no guarantees that he would get better but we felt that as he was so young we should give it a go no matter how much work it entailed. In order to manage Alfie’s inability to keep down his food or drink we had to feed and water him while he was upright. Luckily for us Alfie is a cuddle monster and so we had no problems with that!! We then had to keep him upright for around 15/20 minutes until we felt the food/water had gone down. We then had to walk him for another 20 minutes or so to ensure that there was nothing left for him to bring up. We had to go through this several times a day so had to work this into our busy work schedules. It took several months for Alfie to put weight back on as at one point he had lost more than half his body weight and was a very sorry sight. Now 2 years on Alfie is still with us and appears to have undergone a full recovery. He no longer requires feeding and watering upright and has probably put on a tiny bit more weight than he should (thanks to grandparents who love him to pieces!). We owe all of this to our local vet and the work that was done by all the staff at Cambridge. Without them Alfie would have died or been unnecessarily put to sleep and my family are eternally grateful to them for doing all that they did and keeping the chains of communication open so that we felt like we were involved at every step of the way - thank you! By sponsoring me thorough the London Marathon you will be enabling the school to continue to put money into research and cultivating specialist expertise which allow them to provide a service to referrals from all over the country, just like me. If you have a pet (it doesn't have to be a dog, the school treats any animal) wouldn't you like to know that there is somewhere like this that you could turn to when it is thought that all your options have been used? I say it again, without the veterinary school, Alfie would no longer be with us and for that I am incredibly thankful and will do whatever I can to raise funds so that they can continue their amazing work - can you help?? 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. <span style="color: black; line-height: 115%; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">So please dig deep and donate now.

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