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A big thank you
We recently heard that customers raised £12,120.55 and Managing Director, Dean Richmond, has matched the entire amount! We have just received a huge £24,241.10. This completes a record breaking year which has raised over £38,400, the highest so far.
We want to send a huge thank you and our appreciation to Pets Corner as we enter the 10th year of our partnership in 2022. We are looking forward to celebrating this very special year!
Canine Partners has several beneficiaries in the South West and we were delighted to receive this commitment from the Thatchers Foundation. It will provide continued training, advice and round-the-clock telephone support for the coming five years for one of our Somerset beneficiaries. Having this funding secured will help us to carry out this vital work and to continue to work towards re-opening our waiting list to new applicants.
Each partnership created by Canine Partners is supported for its full working lifetime and when our wonderful assistance dogs are nearing retirement, we work closely with our beneficiaries to provide a successor dog if they wish to have one.
The charity relies on donations and gifts to carry out its work around the UK and we are extremely grateful for this most generous multi-year funding from the Thatchers Foundation.
Darcey, nine-years-old from Renfrewshire in Scotland, is taking part in the Fit for 30 Challenge this September to raise vital funds for Canine Partners.
The challenge is in memory of Canine Partners’ Demonstration Dog, Heston, who her Grandparents were volunteer Demonstration Dog Handlers for the charity with.
“I wanted to fundraise for Canine Partners because Heston was my best friend. He was like a brother to me and he was my ‘Uncle Heston’. I loved him so much because he was part of Canine Partners.”
Heston, who sadly passed away earlier this year, was born four days after Darcey, so they had a special bond and Darcey grew up with Heston in the family.
Darcey, who is walking 30 miles in September around her village for the challenge, is hoping her fundraising efforts will make her Gran and Grandad ‘happy because they’ve been sad about Heston’.
Darcey has raised over £370 for Canine Partners during her challenge so far. If you’d like to sponsor her, please visit justgiving.com/fundraising/Danielle-Rankin.
On 21 July 2021 Kew Electrical Limited held a fundraiser at Haywards Heath Golf Course and raised £1,500 in aid of Canine Partners.
Volunteer Nick Poole fielded a team and represented us at the event. CEO and founder of the company, Geoff Kerly, is celebrating 25 years in business and has produced a book charting the history of Kew Electrical, which are wholesale electrical distributors, with a suggested donation of £5 in aid of Canine Partners.
A huge thank you goes to Geoff and MD Nik Mulcahy for supporting us for the past 14 years, raising over £44,000 for the charity and sponsoring the training of many canine partners.
Kathy started working for Canine Partners in 2018 and is the Head of Housekeeping at the Midlands Training Centre. One aspect of her role is to support partnerships at the start of the journey during their Onsite Training Courses. This is her story:
After I started working for Canine Partners it wasn’t long before I realised the significance of these amazing dogs in the lives of not just their partners, but also of the partners’ families and friends. The creation of a partnership really is life-changing for so many people. Seeing this and how these people approached and overcame the challenges in their everyday lives made me think about my life and look for new challenges.
Soon after starting to work for the charity an email went out looking for people to raise funds by cycling from London to Paris. It was more than 13 years since I’d ridden and I didn’t even own a bike, but I took up the challenge. I trained and completed the 275 miles along with three others in September 2018.
I was aware of the need to raise not only funds but awareness of the charity. I am always keen to support fundraising events, whether based at the Midlands Training Centre or out in public. When the first Covid-19 lockdown hit in 2020 and I was furloughed, I wanted to stay engaged with the charity, have a purpose to life and also to continue to prompt awareness among family and friends.
Last summer, I set myself the challenge to complete a virtual triathlon. This involved walking the length of Hadrian’s Wall for 90 miles with my dog, cycling and walking 1084 miles (the length of Britain) and then rowing the English Channel for 21 miles. I have to be honest and say that I haven’t yet achieved all these challenges due to my gradual return to work and Covid-19 restrictions, but I continue to clock up miles on the bike and my feet towards John o’ Groats and currently have 142 miles left to complete. Once this is done and lockdown restrictions allow I will also aim to complete the rowing – I WILL complete my triathlon even if not as fast as I originally planned!
I have organised a number of other online projects, encouraging other people to get involved and donate. These included running a virtual ‘bake off’ and recipe sale during lockdown, and a Christmas gift box ‘magic squares’ raffle in December. My latest online venture is a second hand book club, where people can buy and sell books with all proceeds going to the Canine partners, and this has proved very popular during the latest restrictions.
Once I have completed the Lands’ End to John O’Groats challenge, I will start training for a London to Brighton bike ride which, fingers crossed, will take place in September. I have a team of nine riders taking part in it, seven of whom will be sponsored for Canine Partners. I also have a cookbook in the pipeline, which will hopefully be for sale later in the year. I am running an auction of new items on the book club during May, which will include all sorts of new things from dog toys to toiletries, candles and jewellery. The book club is on-going and new members are always welcome.
Maddie has been fundraising for Canine Partners over the last two years and is aiming to raise £5,000 for the charity in total.
Inspired by her family becoming Puppy Parent volunteers in 2019, Maddie decided to raise vital funds for the charity to go towards the training of a puppy. 
Maddie’s fundraising efforts so far have included a variety of things, from making and selling cookies and dog biscuits, to her sisters, Liv and Boo, going busking at Christmas. She has also made and sold jewellery and dog toys, and held a teddy sale.
When speaking about her fundraising, Maddie said “I have spent a week in a wheelchair by myself. This was a big challenge because I am able bodied and like to be quite sporty. I thought it would be a great way to understand some of the challenges of being a wheelchair user.”
Maddie’s mum, Kate, shared the wheelchair challenge on social media to raise awareness of Maddie’s fundraising.
Speaking of Maddie’s challenge, Kate said “We took our daily exercise in a park in Bedford. It certainly showed us that getting around can be very hard work, Maddie needed a lot of help by us pushing her. Maddie’s general confidence and positivity has grown over the week too. It’s been great to watch!”
Looking forward, Maddie is planning to do more fundraising and ‘won’t stop’ until she reaches her target of £5,000. We can’t wait to see what Maddie does next!
Mark is walking 30 widths of his six metre lounge a week until the end of March to raise vital funds for Canine Partners.
36-year-old Mark is a full-time wheelchair user and uses a walking frame for exercise therapy. He has been inspired by Captain Sir Tom Moore’s fundraising efforts for the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic and is aiming to raise over £1,000 for the Canine Partners, as he is on the waiting list for one of the charity’s amazing assistance dogs.
“I’ve applied for a canine partner myself and I know fundraising has been difficult due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I wanted to raise money for the charity as I am passionate about disabled people being as independent as possible. I didn’t originally set a fundraising goal for my challenge, I was just hoping for a couple of hundred pounds. I am very shocked by the support but also very pleased with the money I’ve raised for Canine Partners.” said Mark.
Having been inspired like many others by @captaintommoore I am raising money for @canine_partners by walking 30 widths(instead of 15) of my lounge a week until the end of March. I hope to gain an assistance dog
Totally overwhelmed by the response can you help me reach £1000 https://t.co/yT9Ct9m1lD pic.twitter.com/kVAie8nXKZ— markcooper FRSA (@markc1984) March 8, 2021
Mark is doing his challenge as part of Canine Partner’s Fit for 30 Challenge, where challengers think of any physical or mental wellbeing challenged based around the number 30 that suits their skills.
“I was inspired by Captain Tom as I use a walking frame for exercise therapy but I didn’t train for the challenge. I just doubled what I normally do in a week and decided to tie it in to the Fit for 30 Challenge.” said Mark.
“Six years ago I saw an advert about Canine Partners looking for Puppy Parent volunteers in my local area. I was lucky enough to experience training two Canine Partners puppies from the age of eight weeks old, through to seeing them being matched and going on to change their partners’ lives.
“For my last pup, Quiz, life as an assistance dog just wasn’t meant to be, so I rehomed her as my pet dog. Quiz and I continue to support Canine Partners by offering respite care for working canine partner assistance dogs in our area when required.”
“My idea for my Fit for 30 Challenge was to post a photo of Quiz playing with a different dog every day throughout September 2020. Social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic made this more of a challenge than I expected, but Quiz rose to the challenge and both she and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting so many gorgeous dogs during our daily exercise.
“We raised £130, which we were very pleased about, and when added to our other 2020 fundraisers from earlier in the year, our total came to over £500.”
“Our various fundraisers for Canine Partners during 2020 were a great help for me personally in getting through various degrees of lockdown and other social distancing that we faced throughout the year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I look forward to holding other local fundraising events at my beach hut if and when circumstances allow. I love keeping an eye on the Canine Partners website and social media to see if there are any further challenges I can put my own twist on too!”
In-store and online customers donated a fantastic £4,187.85 by adding 30p to their purchases in a two week period in December 2020.
Pets Corner’s Managing Director Dean Richmond has also matched all the customer donations bringing the total donation to an amazing £8,375.
Dean Richmond said: “We are very thankful to our customers and staff for their support with our Christmas campaign, and I am delighted to be matching the donations to support Canine Partners, who continue to provide life-changing assistance to those in need during these difficult times.”
Canine Partners would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who supported the Pets Corner Christmas campaign. Your contribution will make a big difference during these difficult times.
Overall in 2020 Pets Corner raised an incredible £20,994.62 for Canine Partners. All donations help us to train and support assistance dogs throughout their lifetime, so they can provide life-changing support to adults with physical disabilities across the UK.
This fundraising campaign, coming at the end of such an extraordinarily difficult year, was crucial as we asked our supporters to dig deep and help us again. Our amazing donors did exactly that and we were thrilled to raise just over £125,000, including match funding and gift aid, well ahead of the £110,000 we had dared to hope for.
The funds raised will help Canine Partners to start to create new partnerships in the year ahead between our specially trained assistance dogs and people with physical disabilities. Many of these clients have been waiting for over two years and many more have been unable to commence their application process at all due to the interruption in our activities caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Our supporters have given Canine Partners the stability to enter 2021 with confidence and to put plans in place for a resumption of all our life-transforming activities.