Coastway Vets raise £2,938 with 27-mile walk for Canine Partners

We want to say a huge thank you and well done to the team at Coastway Vets, from Sussex, who have raised a phenomenal £2,938 for Canine Partners with a sponsored walk.

The team challenged themselves to a 27-mile walk, which took 10 hours to complete, starting and finishing their walk in the dark.

Jay Lisher, Veterinary nurse at Coastway Vets said: “We are blown away with how generous everyone has been and we want to say a huge thank you to the clients, colleagues, friends, and family who supported us and helped us raise such a great amount for a very worthy charity. Canine Partners is such an amazing charity to support and it meant so much to the team how much the community got involved”.

This generous donation will help us to continue the creation of life transforming partnerships, now and in the future.

Could you take on a challenge to help us raise money to continue our life-changing work? To find out more please visit: caninepartners.org.uk/challenges

Wing walking at 84: Belinda’s fundraising story

84-year-old Belinda lives in Bedfordshire and is doing a wing walk to raise funds for Canine Partners. This is her story:

My husband David passed away last year after a long struggle with multiple disabling illnesses. His life was made easier and more fulfilling thanks to his canine partner, Crunchie – a wonderful Labradoodle with a big personality, who was specifically trained to assist with everyday activities.

David and Crunchie were inseparable, but sadly, Crunchie became ill in 2022 and had to be put to sleep. Losing his loyal helper and friend was a devastating blow for David, and a light went out in all our lives.

After David’s passing, I knew I wanted to do something to honour his memory and support the charity that had brought so much joy and independence to our lives.

I’ve seen firsthand how these amazing dogs can transform lives. That’s why, on 3 May*, which would have been David’s birthday, I’m going to do a Wing Walk at Old Warden near Bedford to raise money for Canine Partners.

I know it sounds like a crazy idea, especially at the age of 84, but I’m determined to take on this challenge to support a cause that means so much to me.

Ten years ago, I did a Sky Dive to raise money for Canine Partners, and I’m hoping that this new challenge will be just as successful in raising funds and awareness for this wonderful organisation.

I’ve set myself a target of £5,000 – whether you can donate a little or a lot, every penny counts.

Your generosity will help Canine Partners continue their vital work and provide more assistance dogs to people like David, who need them most. I’m grateful for your support and for helping me honour David’s memory in such a meaningful way.

*Belinda’s wing walk has been postponed to 2 August due to bad weather conditions.

To sponsor Belinda, please visit: www.justgiving.com/page/belinda-day-1707325792822

Running the London Marathon: Debbie’s fundraising story

58-year-old Debbie, who lives in Warwickshire, is running the London Marathon to raise vital funds for Canine Partners. This is her story:

“It was several years ago, when I attended a social group, that I first heard about Canine Partners. A lady who attended the group was a Puppy Parent volunteer for the charity and would bring the puppy to the group. At the time, we had our own dogs, but I thought it was a lovely thing to do.

“A few years later, my husband retired, and we had sadly lost our dogs. The house felt empty, so we initially thought of adopting an older dog, but then we remembered about Canine Partners. We did our research and saw what a difference a dog could make to the life of a person living with a disability. We contacted Canine Partners, and within a few weeks, our first puppy arrived – we have been Puppy Parent volunteers ever since!

“My goal is just to enjoy the atmosphere in London, so I’ve put no pressure on myself for a finish time – I’m not a runner, just passionate about this amazing charity! I’m following a training plan involving running four times a week.

“Me and my husband David ran the London Virtual Marathon in October 2021, raising £1000 for Canine Partners. This time, I have a fundraising target of £2000, which is currently at £1270.”

To sponsor Debbie, please visit: www.justgiving.com/page/debbie-de-ville-1686659675949

Could you fundraise for Canine Partners? To find out more and get inspiration for your next challenge, please visit caninepartners.org.uk/get-involved/fundraising

100 Tuggy Toys for puppies in training

We would like to say a massive thank you to our volunteers Mel, Jane and Harriet for their amazing work in creating a huge amount of tuggy toys for our dogs in training!

A special thanks goes out to St Peter’s Church, Mancestter where the community donated fleece blankets, jackets and dressing gowns to help us volunteers complete their tuggy toy mission. The fabric donated was used to make an incredible 118 tuggy toys! These toys are now on their way to our Puppy Parent volunteers!

There is even some fabric left over so the mission continues!…

Thank you to everyone involved!

Photos of Melanie & Harriet, with her Canine Partner Fevro, plus OJ & Myrtle, Canine Partner Dog Ambassadors.

Canary ‘Woof’ 2023

On the 29 and 30 November Canine Partners staff, volunteers and dogs joined together at Jubilee Place in Canary Wharf in central London.

This yearly event aims to promote the amazing work our specially trained assistance dogs do for people living with physical disabilities across the UK.

After setting up our station in the prime location – (next to Starbucks) it was go time!

A number of times throughout the day our amazing Demonstration Team showcased the brilliant taskwork of our dogs, from turning on light switches to pulling off bed sheets and loading the washing machine, we could hear the gasps from onlookers and could see the amazement in their faces.

Over the two whole days we spent at Canary Wharf we managed to raise an incredible £4000!

Thank you to everyone involved and a big thank you to everyone who donated!

See you next year!

Amazing funds raised by West Sussex Golf Club

Back on 7 September, West Sussex Golf Club Captain’s charity day, members and guests came together to raise money for Canine Partners. The charity day includes games of golf, raffles, a silent auction and a demo from our amazing Dog Demonstration Team.

The West Sussex Golf Club’s charity day raised a staggering £13,348.21 for Canine Partners! A cheque presentation held earlier this month on 18 November, showcased a huge cheque where the incredible funds were presented to Canine Partners.

A massive thank you to West Sussex Golf Club for their amazing fundraising, we are extremely grateful.

Abseiling down the Spinnaker Tower: Lorraine’s fundraising story

Abseiling down the Spinnaker Tower: Lorraine’s fundraising story

65-year-old Lorraine, who lives in Fareham, abseiled 100m down the Spinnaker Tower to raise vital funds for Canine Partners. This is her story:

“It all started when we tragically lost our beloved eldest son, Michael, to a spinal injury. While Michael was fighting for his life in hospital, his wonderful friends set up a Just Giving page for him that raised more than £30,000.

“After the unthinkable happened and he passed away, we had to decide where the money raised would go. We split it between three charities: two of which were close to Michael’s heart and the third being Canine Partners.

“After reading about the amazing work of the Canine Partners, I was staggered by the huge difference that a canine partner assistance dog can make to the life of a disabled person. Had Michael lived, he may well have eventually benefited from one of these incredible dogs.

“In 2018, I was delighted to visit the Southern Training Centre to see how the dogs are trained and we were honoured to have a puppy called Monti sponsored in Michael’s name.

“This year, Michael and I would have reached a combined age of 100 – him 35 and me 65. I wanted to mark the occasion by doing something outrageous (outrageous for me, anyway!) for charity. My friend suggested abseiling down the Spinnaker Tower, but she didn’t let me do it alone. Another close friend joined us, and we each raised money for our charities of choice.

“You asked about training – well, there wasn’t any until we were hanging off the side of the tower! That’s probably deliberate because it’s too late to back out by then! Luckily, the weather was fabulous, so we didn’t have to battle with wind or rain. We all managed to get to the bottom and, although it was undeniably scary at times, we thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.

“I started my fundraising with a target of £1000, which quickly raised to £1300. The fund currently stands at more than £2000! It has been an absolute pleasure to support this wonderful charity.”

Could you fundraise for Canine Partners? To find out more and get inspiration for your next challenge, please visit caninepartners.org.uk/get-involved/fundraising

RHS Tatton Flower Show

We were delighted to be running the shop and drop again at the RHS – Royal Horticultural Society Tatton Flower Show 19-23 July.

Here’s our CEO Alex helping out, along with some of our amazing volunteers!

We had plenty of visits to our stand enabling people to learn more about the life-changing work Canine Partners does. We also had some people let us look after their new purchases while they enjoyed the show.

See you next year?

Arlington Bluebell Walk 2023

We’d like to say a huge thank you to Ruth Narracott and her army of volunteers for raising a fantastic amount of money from the Arlington Bluebell Walk in East Sussex on 6 and 7 May 2023.

They had over 400 visitors over the two days and raised a staggering £3,082 (and counting!) for Canine Partners.

The dog-friendly walk through the bluebells included seven different routes, including a wheelchair-friendly gravelled route through ancient oak woods. Refreshments were available at the end from the café with all proceeds coming to Canine Partners across the weekend.

We are so grateful for this wonderful support and cannot thank you enough. Our supporters are the reason we are able to continue training our fantastic dogs and transform lives.

Updates from our community

Canine Partners in the media

We’re delighted to share that a number of our partnerships have been featured in print, on radio and on TV recently…

Partner Wendy with canine partner Carmen was interviewed by Sharon Hartley on BBC Radio Lancashire, broadcast on Tuesday 28 February. Listen again on BBC Sounds.
Partner Jess with canine partner Xolani feature in the April issue of Your Dog magazine, on newsstands now.
Partner Jonathan with canine partner Georgia appeared on TV show of Unbeatable, broadcast on Wednesday 5 April at 4pm on BBC1 and available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

A huge thank you and well done to all our wonderful partnerships for helping to raise awareness of Canine Partners.

Fantastic fundraising

Our community across the country have been hard at work raising vital funds this year. We have a couple of highlights to share here:

Partner Elaine with canine partner Bentley took on the challenge of 400 lengths in four weeks at her local swimming pool in Brighton, to raise funds for Canine Partners. Featuring in the Brighton Argus in January, Elaine has smashed her target of £500, raising over £2,100! Find out more about Elaine’s challenge here.

The Toyota Manufacturing UK Charitable Trust made a generous donation this year towards equipment for our Midlands Training Centre. Our dogs receive regular physiotherapy check ups throughout their training to help support their strength and mobility development as working dogs. The physiotherapist may prescribe PEMF (Pulsed ElectroMagnetic Fields) therapy so the team have been able to put this fantastic donation to good use straight away, purchasing specialist mats to enable this therapy to be provided. The dogs are able to use the mats at the Training Centre, 2-3 times a day for a few weeks, to help promote tissue repair as part of their physiotherapy plan.

Brilliant Corporates

Canine Partners is fortunate to be supported by fantastic corporate organisations who give their time, energy and funds to support our charity.

Caremark Ltd

We were delighted to be invited to the annual conference of Caremark Ltd, our new Corporate Partner in January, held at the world famous Silverstone Race Course. Over 300 franchisee owners from across the UK were introduced to the work of Canine Partners with our demonstration team showcasing how our amazing dogs support their disabled partner. Caremark Ltd provide home care assistance to adults and older people and David Glover, Caremark’s Joint CEO says, “I am extremely excited about this partnership with Canine Partners. Their values are completely aligned with ours and we are very proud to be supporting a charity that helps people in the same way as ourselves.”

Purina

Purina are a long standing corporate partner of Canine Partners and we are very grateful for their ongoing support for the charity. We joined the Purina Annual Conference in London where we engaged with Purina employees and celebrated the special partnership we have with them. There are exciting plans in the pipeline with Purina this summer – watch this space!