It started with Tuesday last week, which saw me make the journey from Sussex up to Herefordshire and back, to meet with Clive, one of our most loyal and generous supporters, and his wife Sylvia. Anne (who oversees our fundraising side of things) was keen to be introduced to Clive and Sylvia, to put in place further plans for raising the remaining funds that are required to finish off the second building at our brand new Midlands Centre. Very exciting.

Which then led on to Thursday, when I was back up the road to the Midlands in order to see how the builders were progressing at our new Leicestershire site, having sorted out a few bits and bobs back at the Sussex ranch in between times. The contractors are working hard, and preparing the way for what will become our brand new wheelchair-accessible accommodation, which means we will be able to offer disabled people in the Midlands the same facilities as are currently available at our Southern Centre. Our aim is to have this completed by the Summer, with your help.

Next stop was then Coutts in London, where England rugby star Chris Robshaw was launching his testimonial year, courtesy of Harlequins rugby club, during which he will be raising funds for Canine Partners. We were delighted that Andy Fields was able to join us, together with his canine partner Emily. Andy played rugby for England under 18s, under 19s, under 20s and under 21s before having a motorbike accident in which he broke his back, and now uses a wheelchair. Emily has been by his side assisting him for the past eight years. It was great to see Andy rubbing shoulders with the likes of Chris Robshaw and other names from the world of international rugby including Danny Care, Jamie Roberts and Ugo Monye.

Accompanying Andy to and from Waterloo station gave a real insight into the physical barriers that get in the way of people using wheelchairs – the lift on the north side of Waterloo Bridge was out of order, leaving Andy stranded. Being resourceful and determined, he staggered down the stairs using the handrail and a stick, with Emily by his side, and relied on others to carry his electric wheelchair down. And then when we made the long detour to Jubilee Bridge on the way back after the event, in temperatures of minus 5 degrees, a homeless person had taken up residence in the only working lift, making it nearly impossible to manoeuvre Andy’s wheelchair inside, with Emily. Our partnerships face these sorts of issues every day.

It was then a quick turnaround, in order to catch the early flight to Scotland. (And ‘quick turnaround’ means about 3 hours in bed!). Our Scottish team are very important to the UKwide Canine Partners family, so it was brilliant to sit down with them all and talk through
our calendar of events in Scotland this year, which is going to be great. We also took the opportunity to touch base with Marjorie, a staunch member of our Paisley puppy-training satellite group, before flying back down that same evening.

There’s no peace for the wicked, so the next morning involved another early start as I took ‘newbie’ Anne up to Buckinghamshire to meet another key member of the Canine Partners team. Roger Jefcoate has been at the sharp end of Canine Partners from the very beginning – he even sponsored the very first partnership course in the Charity’s history, back in 1993, and has been an active vice patron of the Charity ever since, with wife Jean always by his side. This was an opportunity for Anne to pick Roger’s brains about his many and various contacts and ideas. As vice patron, Roger opens doors for us and it’s then up to us to follow through.

We eventually rolled back into Sussex late again, to the news that our first partnership courses of 2016 have successfully been completed, which means that another four disabled people have headed home with their specially trained canine partners by their sides. And we also learned the wonderful news that the Hampshire area of Wilko’s have decided to raise funds for Canine Partners later this year. Thank you to all Wilko’s staff – we are absolutely thrilled that you’re on board with us, as we sail into an exciting future, changing more people’s lives.
And a final nod to our friends at Purina – thank you for sending your film crew to visit us today, and meet our partners and their dogs. We value your help in raising awareness of our work, and we love working with you!

Onwards and upwards!

There are certain people in this life who make a contribution to the world in general, but who are too modest to acknowledge it, or take any credit. Bruce was one of those people. I honestly believe that the Charity would not be here today, were it not for Bruce in those early days. He was someone who worked behind the scenes rather than wanting to take the limelight. I clearly remember the day that Prince Harry came to visit us, back in 2010. Bruce’s children were young at the time, and eager to find out from Bruce what he had thought of Prince Harry, when he arrived back home from work. “I don’t know”, said Bruce, “I was too busy doing my work to take part in any of that – someone’s got to make sure the bills get paid on time, haven’t they?”.

He often described himself to me as a builder (he was an almost obsessive DIY-er in his spare time). I arrived at Canine Partners as a wet-behind-the-ears whippersnapper in 2006 and wasn’t sure what reception I’d get from older statesman Bruce. He took me to one side as I took over as Chief Executive and said “Andy, I’m a builder. If you give me a set of plans I like nothing better than to get my head down and build it for you – but don’t expect me to draw up any fancy plans in the first place!”.

In actual fact, Bruce was being modest. He had plenty of ideas, but he just enjoyed underselling himself. Typical of him was to describe himself as “the grey man in a suit in the colourful world of Canine Partners”. But the photo of him in fancy dress, in flamboyant Napoleon costume, tells a different story. As do the streams of emails that have come into me from staff, volunteers and supporters since the sad news of his passing, which describe a man of immense warmth, who is held in great affection by the Canine Partners family. Bruce always had time to listen to you, whoever you were, and his office was a place where you would gain some respite as well as some good old fashioned common sense.

The Napoleon thing wasn’t just a one-off appearance at a fancy dress party. Bruce lived and breathed the history of the Napoleonic era, and Napoleon was his hero. Talking with Marie, Bruce’s wife, earlier today, she described how it was typical of Bruce to have died of stomach cancer, just like his hero Napoleon (you’ll find various theories of Napoleon’s death, but I believe Bruce, as he know about these things).

The only real difference between Bruce and Napoleon was that Bruce wasn’t quite so keen on travelling! His aversion to planes was well-known, and he would always choose to drive anywhere instead. His driving was pretty quick, to be honest, so he normally got from A to B in a fast time (Formula 1 was another passion of Bruce’s). He also adopted an almost horizontal driving position, which meant you often thought the car was driving itself.

Above all, Bruce was a family man, and this shone through in everything he did. He always enjoyed telling me what his family were up to, and took great pride in his children, and delight in his grandchildren. One of Bruce’s grandchildren is disabled, so Bruce lived and breathed our Mission. The fact that one of Bruce’s sons is in the army, and had frequent tours in war zones, meant that we never placed Bruce’s phone number on our out-of-hours service, as we knew that he lived in fear of getting a phone call in the middle of the night – which meant I received all the calls about blocked drains, and alarms having been set off by cats! It was the family side of Bruce that added so much to Canine Partners too. He looked on us as his extended family, and brought the family-feel into the workplace. Just
one example of this was his annual ritual of writing a Christmas limerick which he inserted into everybody’s pre-Christmas pay packet. He was a poet but he didn’t know it. I tried to keep the tradition going after his retirement, but I was second-rate in comparison with Bruce. (Plus, he’d already used up all the words that rhymed with ‘Noël’).

It is testament to Bruce that no fewer than four Chairs and former Chairs of Canine Partners attended his funeral today, as well as staff, former staff, volunteers, and of course dogs. It is thanks to Bruce that the Charity exists today, and that it will transform the lives of thousands of disabled people over the years to come. That’s some achievement, and something to be very proud of.

Thank you Bruce Jenkins.

Andy

I have so many fond memories of the year! I really can’t single any out, as there would be too many but a flick through past blogs will give you a flavour. And I must take the opportunity to publicly thank everyone for your sponsorship of my own challenges in 2015. I’m going to stop running for a while and give my knees a rest! Time to find my bike.

Our partnership ceremonies have been so inspiring, and the fact that we held nearly twice as many in 2015 than in 2014 just goes to show how many more people are being partnered with these very special dogs nowadays. This is thanks in no small part to the fact that we now have a growing operation in the Midlands as we develop our Leicestershire site, along similar lines to our Southern Centre. The big news is that work is now commencing to take that a stage further, with the construction of our fully accessible residential facilities, which we hope to be using by next autumn. So we have a pretty exciting year ahead of us, not least because we plan to change even more people’s lives than ever before!

And you can help! As you collapse on the settee after eating and drinking too much over the festive period, now is the perfect time to make a New Year’s Resolution to join in the team effort. Why not get yourself ready to take part in one of our special bike rides in September? This gives you 9 months to get training; and a great excuse to go and buy yourself a new bike in the January sales! You will be able to choose a shortish ride of 10 miles to something more challenging, of 25 or 50 miles. We will be organising these at both our Southern and Midlands sites, and we will have more detail for you in the New Year.

Or if cycling’s not your thing, we’ve got lots of running events going on, at various points in the year, as well as our Big Dog Walks, for a slower pace, with or without your dog. And for the more exotic and adventurous, watch out for our brand new programme of overseas challenges which will be coming into play later in the year.

If you’re really looking for a new hobby, why not consider getting yourself enrolled onto our register of trained Speakers, so you can become an ambassador for us, giving talks to community groups in your area, or help us to train our puppies – don’t worry, we provide full training. If that sounds too nerve-wracking, we will be unveiling a new network of Community Champions in the New Year, who will provide more ‘behind the scenes’ help, putting up posters etc on local noticeboards.

So there’s something for everyone, and all details will be available throughout the year, on our website, which will have a new ‘look’ to it next year. All will be revealed later in January!

Wherever you live, it is highly likely that somebody is considering applying for a canine partner, and may currently be feeling isolated, lonely and desperately in need of the increased independence and companionship that our specially trained dogs can provide. By helping us, you will also help them to get a canine partner… and a new life.

Here’s to a happy, healthy and great fun 2016!!!

Andy

This immense building was jam-packed with over 600 members of the Canine Partners extended family of friends and guests, both two-legged and four-legged, all joined together for a very special carol service, organised by Angela Hamlin’s Draycott Nursing & Care.

Celebrities Nicholas Parsons, Fiona Fullerton, David Robb, and Colonel John Bashford-Snell gave readings in between the wonderful music that was provided both by the Guards Chapel Choir and also a beautiful solo performance of Silent Night by Sophie Hurst. We were honoured to be joined by Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex, who listened intently to our very own Jo Hill and canine partner Derby, as they gave a very moving testimonial of life before and after Jo’s accident, and the transformational effect that Derby has had on her life. She was also enthralled by the impromptu demonstrations that were given up and down the aisles by a selection of different dogs at different stages in their training. Meanwhile a whole assortment of the Canine Partners family looked on, with many of our partnerships joining us from around the UK for this very special event. I’m not sure that Guards Chapel will have ever seen so many dogs, and certainly not dogs sporting purple Canine Partners jackets, sitting quietly by the side of their human partners’ wheelchairs.

Her Royal Highness made a bee line for our partnerships once the service came to an end, and spent a long time talking with each person and their dog, including striking dark red-coloured Icharus, who is partnered with Eileen, and glossy black Flatcoated Retriever Guy who is partnered with Barry. I lost count of the partnerships who were present, which was just brilliant to see.
We are so grateful to Draycott Nursing & Care for having arranged this spectacular event in aid of Canine Partners. Your efforts have already sponsored the training of golden retriever Hamlin for Al (Hamlin is named after Angela Hamlin, mastermind of the event and MD of the Draycott team). And this evening will have set us well on the way to sponsoring another dog for somebody else – our guests were hugely generous in their donations, having felt so strongly about our cause after meeting so many of our partners with their dogs.

And all the while, overlooking proceedings, was a plaque on the wall, commemorating the life of dear old Hugo, a Guardsman himself, who was also a vice patron of Canine Partners for many years until his death in 2013. I am sure Hugo was with us, and was feeling hugely proud, not only of us, but also of Tita who has picked up the baton where Hugo left off, and works tirelessly to further our cause.

After our guests departed, the whole team set to with gusto, packing everything away, and leaving all as we found it. Waggons eventually rolled back into our Sussex Centre at around midnight, with a team of dogs and humans who were tired but extremely satisfied with a job well done.

And now we move on to our final event of this remarkable year, as our Midlands team host an Evening of Winter Music tonight, at our Leicestershire Centre.

Andy

I eventually crawled in at 8pm last night after about nine hours on the road. But it was well worth it, because it was a big day for us in the Midlands, as we held our final Partnership Ceremony of the year, in which we celebrated another eight newly-formed partnerships. That’s another eight of these amazing dogs who are now accompanying their human partners through life, across various parts of the UK. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house as we heard of the many and various ways in which these amazing dogs have helped to make life better for their new owners. And it was a wonderful opportunity for the Canine Partners family to get together and celebrate – especially those members of the family who helped to put these particular partnerships together, either through volunteering or sponsorship.

The other reason for it being a big day for us in the Midlands was that the builders arrived on site while Partnership Ceremony was taking place, in high viz jackets and hard hats, which can only mean one thing – work is starting on the development of our second main building! This will make such a difference to us and also to disabled people living in the Midlands as when it is finished, it will enable lots more people to come and stay with us on site while being matched up with our dogs, as the building will provide residential accommodation that is adapted for people with high levels of disability. Having started it now, we hope to have it finished and in use by next Summer/Autumn. Exciting!

Did I tell you about the Winter Market we held last week? That was very Christmassy and exciting! Our halls were decked with holly. In fact they were decked by Holly, as she was in charge of coordinating this particular event. (Her friend Ivy couldn’t make it this year). Much fun and yuletide merriment was had by all, and we were entertained by In Accord with a selection of Christmassy tunes, all sung a cappella. By the time everyone wended their ways home, we had raised over £2,000 to help us train more dogs, which is brilliant. A special mention of our superb band of volunteers who helped out as always. Terry – this event simply wouldn’t have happened without you. Likewise William, and so many others too many to mention. The Canine Partners team is made up of seven times as many volunteers as paid staff.

The wind had really picked up by the time we packed up the Winter Market, and rain came lashing down. This was a real reminder of the devastating effects of Storm Desmond further north and around the UK. The Canine Partners family is spread widely across all regions, and we feel it whenever the UK is battered by extremes of weather. Life is difficult in these circumstances, let alone when you use a wheelchair and have a dog to walk, so spare a thought for our partnerships, of whom there are 340 around the UK at this present moment. And that number rises every week, as we partner more dogs.

Our next stop is the amazing Carol Service in London tomorrow evening, arranged by Angela Hamlin and our wonderful friends at Draycott  Nursing and Care. Her Royal Highness Sophie Countess of Wessex will be joining us in the magnificent Guards Chapel for what will prove to be a memorable night, with an array of celebrities giving readings between the carols, to a full house of over 600 guests. Our Ken is already loading up the van, and our dogs are putting the final touches to the various displays they will be giving throughout the service – the details of this special demonstration are top secret. In fact I’ve already said too much! Rest assured I’ll tell you all about it after the event.

Onwards and upwards, as we go out and transform more people’s lives with these very special dogs

Andy

Today’s been a funny sort of day. At about 2pm this afternoon I received delivery of a very smart elephant, complete with sparkly Canine Partners jacket on its back. It isn’t a real one, I hasten to add. Just a papier mâché replica. But it is still pretty big, and unexpected. And thankfully housetrained. It turns out it comes from Horsham (don’t they all??), where it’s been part of the Elephantastic fundraising event. We were lucky to have three Canine Partners elephants in the herd of 183, sponsored by Wakefield’s the jewellers. And now he’s found his way into my office, until some lucky soul wins him in a raffle. Any offers?

Of course people aren’t just supporting us in Horsham – they are springing up all over the UK, doing all sorts of different things to support the overall Canine Partners team effort and make sure we go out and transform more people’s lives.

Just as an example, eight occupational therapists have just joined our ranks, adding to the existing network of OTs around the UK, both north and south of the border, who help us to assess our applicants by visiting them in their homes. Our Anita and her team are really ramping up our capability to assess more applicants, so that ever more people have the opportunity to put themselves forward for partnership with one of our amazing dogs. Ashley spends her days meeting with prospective applicants down in our Southern Centre while Laura does the same at our Midlands Centre, making our services much more accessible to people living in the Midlands and the North. And our team of occupational therapists then visit these people in their homes to complete the picture.

Now that we are partnering 80 dogs a year, we are seeing so many more people enjoying the benefits of having a canine partner by their side. The beauty of this job is that every day you see the transformative effects of these dogs, as we constantly open our doors to people with disabilities, who come and stay with us in our specially adapted accommodation. As I write, another three people have joined us at our Southern Centre, and are staying with us for a fortnight as they prepare to go home with their brand new canine partners – what a great Christmas present!

Meanwhile a whole purple army of Canine Partners volunteers and supporters help to make it all possible, a prime example being our Bedford satellite group, who dropped me a line this morning. They’ve just laid on a Christmas Fayre with all our purple army of puppy parents, puppies, partners and supporters in the area and raised an amazing £2,178 so we can train some more dogs, and change some more lives. How brilliant is that! And what’s more, Sheila and demonstration dog Chester are being presented with a cheque for £1,000 tomorrow evening from some extremely generous well-wishers in the Bedford area.

On the Christmas theme, have you bought your Canine Partners Christmas jumper yet? Complete with cartoon puppy Sunny on the front? If not, you’re probably about the only person in the UK who hasn’t. But don’t worry, you have an opportunity to buy yours from our online shop right now, or come and join us at our Winter Market this Thursday evening and buy it in person. The fun and frolics take place at our Southern Centre from 4.30pm till 8pm, with all sorts of stalls, Christmas gifts, mulled wine, festive food and live music from In Accord. Anything you spend when buying Christmas presents, helps us to train more of these special dogs.

Onwards and upwards, changing more people’s lives!

I’ve just got back from London, joining up with our brilliant Fundraising Committee who have been so active in this, our twenty fifth anniversary year. Looking back, it really has been quite a year for Canine Partners in London, and everywhere in fact. Our K9 Chess event, masterminded by the amazing Lady Pearson, raised well over £100,000, and today we heard how our combined efforts at our annual Clay Shoot, and our one-off Cavalry and Guards Club dinner, held within a few days of each other, raised a combined total of a further £95,000 for the cause. Which means we can transform a lot more people’s lives. Those few days were a bit surreal to be honest, and merit my giving a bit more detail.

The Clay Shoot is run and hosted for us with great enthusiasm and generosity by The Earl and Countess of Clarendon at their Holywell Estate, with our wonderfully supportive vice president Jane Clarendon helping in the background. Forty two teams enjoyed a brilliant day’s shooting, and included His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester, patron of Canine Partners, as well as gold medal winning Olympian Peter Wilson. The standard was exceptionally high, the scenery was beautiful, and we were blessed with autumn sunshine. Not only did people thoroughly enjoy the day but they were also inspired to give generously to the cause, which meant everyone went home with smiles on their faces. None more so than Christina, who had several breakfasts. Or Milly, who had put so much effort into the whole thing. Or maybe Jane, who succeeded in selling over a thousand pounds’ worth of raffle tickets (when the Dowager Countess of Clarendon asks, and thrusts a bucket at you, you tend to say yes, and hand over your money). My only helpful contribution to the day was to get overexcited about the silent auction, mainly because there were walkie-talkies involved – and over £6,000 of bids.

No sooner had our guests departed, than the team set to work transforming the marquee into a scene from Bake Off, in readiness for 140 new guests to join us for a Sunday cream tea. Jane donned her Marigolds this time, and was joined by Ali and her brilliant ‘purple army’ of Southampton-based volunteer helpers. The teas raised £4,000. Just amazing!! What’s even more amazing is that on the very same weekend, John Lewis’ opened up their Longstock Park Water Gardens in aid of Canine Partners, while other members of the purple family attended Paws in the Park in Kent. Special mention of our Ken, who works tirelessly behind the scenes to support all our events, loading vans and lugging tables and chairs around. This is a big team effort.

And then we bounced merrily back into London for our Cavalry and Guards event. What can I tell you about that night?! I honestly don’t know – it was absolutely bonkers! The complete ‘force of nature that is Jimmy Zouche’ led us through a most memorable evening, where guests were so generous that we could hardly keep up with all their offers of help. Costs were covered by amazing  sponsorship, which meant that all £58,000 raised from the night went as pure profit to train more dogs and transform more people’s lives. Jimmy, staunch volunteer, was the brains and mastermind  behind the whole thing. Afghanistan veteran Guy Disney gave the keynote speech, and Jo gave a very moving testimony (that’s for real, rather than just predictive text) of how canine partner Derby has made a profound difference in her life, and in the life of her whole family. A brilliant evening that will stand out not only in the memory of our twentieth anniversary year, but also in the history of Canine Partners as a whole. I felt very privileged to be a part of it. Even if I did have to wear a dinner jacket. And clip-on bow tie. Well done Milly for organising us again.

From there, three days later, we cruised into Petworth Park, where we had laid on running/walking courses of 5k and 10k for a whole load of willing local people, with and without dogs, all inspired to raise money and get fit for Canine Partners. And all wearing very fetching purple hairy hairbands. Holly was in charge of this one. And Sarah and Ali gave demonstrations in the main ring with canine partners Hamlet and Yarna. Our new range of Christmas merchandise made its first serious outing. (Visit our online shop, to avoid disappointment. All very reasonably priced).

Having helped register people for Petworth, and sell the odd Christmas card probably at the wrong price (maths never was a strong point), I then headed down to Wales to take part in the Cardiff Half Marathon. Having not had time to do any serious training for this, and suffering from a slightly dodgy left knee, I was rather apprehensive about this one. Not least because of the 4am start to make the journey. I needn’t have worried. I got round in one piece (1 hr 52m) and was completely bowled over by the incredible sponsorship from the Canine Partners family. Somebody donated £100 to my sponsorship tally yesterday! There really are some amazing people in this world aren’t there??

Talking of amazing people, brings me to Roger Jefcoate, vice patron of Canine Partners who has been with us from the very beginning, through thick and thin to our present day. On this occasion Roger had joined forces with our staunch local volunteer Jim Devlin, and our brilliant satellite of Bedford puppy parents, to lay on a demonstration event to potential new supporters and some extremely influential people in the local area. Lorraine led the demonstration, in which our puppies were stars of the show, showing what they’ve learned in their early stages, on the road to become canine partners of the future. Local partnerships Gwyneira and canine partner Nikki, Shelley and canine partner Kibble, and Jo and canine partner Derby all gave very moving talks to the assembled audience, describing how their dogs have made a profound difference in their lives. It was a brilliant day and we are immensely grateful to our friends at fellow charity Wheelpower for granting us the facilities, and to all our guests for their immense generosity. It looks like a lot of money will be raised in the local area as a result of this event. A special mention of Roger’s wife Jean, who supports so effectively from the wings, and tries to organise Roger’s enthusiastically full diary. They are both seventy five and really ought to be taking a step back in life – but are driven to keep making a difference in the world, not only with our charity, but with so many others too. Some people are so inspirational, don’t you think?

So, in summary, it’s been a busy couple of weeks. And what I haven’t told you, is that the result of all the above activity is that we’ve been able to transform more people’s lives, with these amazing dogs of ours. Over the last month another six people have stayed with us for their two-week residential course, either at our Southern or our Midlands Centre, collecting their dogs after a culmination of 18 months’ tailor made training. Which means that we remain on course to transform more people’s lives this year than in any previous year in our history.

And to put the icing on the cake, our budding breeding programme has been given an extra boost as canine partner special mum ‘Sula’ gave birth to seven pups this week, who will end up being fully trained canine partners, God willing, in eighteen months’ time. Our thanks, as ever, to Guide Dogs, for helping us to get our breeding programme off the ground.

Onwards and upwards everybody – now go and buy yourself some Christmas cards from our online shop, to help us do more of our work!

Andy

The Midlands Summer Show! What an event that was! Our very first Summer Show in our new premises gave our whole Midlands family a chance to get together and celebrate how far we’ve come in such a short time. A great opportunity for everyone to see the site and meet one another. And we were even entertained by assorted singers and bands. Not only that, but we also raised over £3,000 to help us train some more dogs. The sun shone. The only downside was the wind, which meant if you took your eye off something for a moment, it was 100 yards away, downwind, when you next looked round. We had some fun and games with the tombola tickets, I can tell you.

We then congregated at our Southern Centre for one of our regular Partnership Ceremonies. There was not a dry eye in the house as the assembled guests heard how all these amazing people had forged forward in their lives, with their amazing dogs by their sides. Our dogs make such a profound difference to people’s lives, and this is our opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who contributed to the training of the dog, the support of the partners, or the sponsorship of the whole thing.

Next stop was back to the Midlands, where we ran a Partnership Ceremony for all our recently graduated partnerships in the Midlands and the North. We place dogs with people all over the UK so people travel from far and wide to join us at these events.

And to reinforce our UK-wide efforts, our next stop was up in Scotland, in Perthshire, where we held a reunion day for our whole Scottish Canine Partners family, kindly hosted by staunch supporter Suzetta Rankin, with a great big marquee in her garden. It wasn’t encouraging that the locals kept a wary eye on dark clouds in the surrounding hills, but we needn’t have worried, as the sun came out, which made a welcome change for our Scottish family, with the awful summer they have been experiencing. This was an inspiring, happy day, and we feel very proud of our brilliant family in Scotland.

Then straight back down to another Partnership Ceremony at our Southern Centre, during the following few days, where again we heard stories that tear at the heart strings, and show just how deep is the connection between dog and human partner. This is why we undertake our work! This is why we feel inspired to train more dogs and transform more people’s lives! During these past weeks I have spoken to over 50 of our recently qualified partnerships, at one end of the country or another, and meanwhile we have already partnered another 52 people with our dogs this year alone, who will graduate in a few months’ time. All of us who work here feel extremely humbled and privileged to carry out this work, and feel utterly inspired to do more, with every day that goes by.

As a footnote, I would add that we feel equally humbled and privileged to work with amazing donors, who support our work with donations large and small. Everybody’s contribution is equally appreciated, particularly when we know how many calls there are on your precious hard-earned cash. We hate the thought that the public might gain a negative view of charities in this current climate, due to the actions of some of the larger charities with their large marketing budgets, and feel duty bound to clarify that we don’t, and never have, sold or passed on any people’s details to third parties, and nor do we use any so-called ‘charity chuggers’ signing people up on the street or cold calling on their doorstep (or phoning them up). It’s just not the way we do things.

We have brilliant supporters, who support with donations as well as volunteering with us, and we love working with you. We are a team and between us we are transforming many people’s lives.
Onwards and upwards for the Canine Partners family across the UK.