Update on Stella's "Colour Wheel Appeal" for Canine Partners

Stella and her partner Jenson are very pleased to announce that their appeal has entered a new phase - "Taska" is the first "Colour Wheel Appeal" dog who has been assigned to a lady called "Beth".  A second pairing with another canine partner is in the pipeline.

Beth and Taska have recently been trained together at the Canine Partners centre and Beth has just taken her new buddy home. Taska has already made such a difference to Beth's quality of life that she has written to Stella to say a big "Thank you", not only to Stella for launching the appeal that resulted in Taska, but to everyone who has donated so generously.

Beth became disabled in 2006 by a spinal infection that was initially undiagnosed. She spent six months in hospital in chronic pain with several incapacitating spinal complications. She lost all her confidence, had problems with walking, sleeping, and even breathing. She felt utterly lost and overwhelmed despite having the support of her loving husband. But suddenly this became very different. In Beth's words, "Taska sees me as a friend, not a broken friend.  She sees me as a partner, not a drain on her energy. Taska has already started, in addition to finding my slippers, to help me find some of my old self packed away somewhere inaccesible."

Beth loved having the cushions and quilts in her room at Canine Partners when she stayed for her training with Taska and thanks Malvern Quilters for the thoughtful homestyle comfort they gave.  She is so very grateful for the gift of her beloved dog and wants to spread the word about the value of these priceless animals.

If anyone would like to get in touch with Beth they can do so by writing to Stella Hewett at 51 Arosa Drive, Malvern, WR14 3QE or e-mail to mypartnerjenson@gmail.com.

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David has written an article about our adventure for Cambridge Advanced Motorcyclist magazine "Cam-unicate".  They have kindly allowed us to link to the article. Click here to view in a new window.

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Three O.A.P. brothers and a cousin have just finished our 3,600 mile motorbike ride round the coast of Great Britain.  We started in Suffolk, and have worked our way round the south coast via Land's End, Wales, Blackpool, Western Lake District, Northwest Scotland, John O'groats and down the east side via Teeside, the Humber bridge and the "Lincolnshire Las Vegas" (Skegness). The final leg around Norfolk and Suffolk took in Ness Point at Lowestoft, Britain's most easterly point.

You can read more details at http://www.jbw.org.uk/2011roundbritain.htm

We've done the ride for fun and a personal challenge, but  have decided to help our friend Stella Hewett's "Colour Wheel Appeal" to raise money for training a disabled person's support dog.  Please support Stella's appeal.

Thank you all very much for the donations and good wishes for our trip. Thanks to your generosity we've raised over £1,000 (so far) - fantastic!

Several people have made donations to us along our journey.  In particular we're very grateful to the two young ladies in a cafe at Morecombe who gave us their two-days worth of tips.  Another memorable donation was made by the traffic warden in Whitby who decided to give us a donation instead of a parking ticket!

We have a facebook 'blog' with pictures.