The Rotary Club of Oswestry has taken up the cause of a young woman from Oswestry looking to secure the services of a vital assistance dog to help her day-to day life.

Elin Jones, a 29 year old who has had cerebral palsy since birth is looking to raise the funds to gain the services of Oakley, a puppy that has been reserved for her.

Elin  is a vibrant young lady who lives independently in Oswestry , however since 2013 she is unable to walk and uses a motorised wheelchair following a failed operation on her femur leaving her with an unhealed fracture and life changing consequences.  Among a long list of complex care needs, including having had a colostomy, Elin is now fully hoisted and 24/7 dependent on personal assistants to help her with all aspects of personal care. Elin does not let her disability stop her from achieving her goals and is currently at university studying social care and hopes to go on to do her Masters and become a children’s social worker due to personal past experiences.

Elin loves animals, however she would really like to have an assistance dog, who would be able to help her with her anxiety but also be able to promote her independence. An assistance dog would not replace the 24/7 care needs required, but it would provide Elin with the confidence to go out in the community and give her more opportunities to socialise.

Elin suffers from severe anxiety and feels an assistance dog would greatly help her with this. Elin also suffers from some issues with attachment and an assistance dog could provide a source of constant support whereas a staff team comes with uncertainties of its stability and longevity. An assistance dog would also be able to alert care staff if she were to need assistance in the night and would be able to bring Elin her phone and anything that she may need that is out of reach. Elin already has a dog called Narla, whom she adores, however she is too small and too old to be trained as her assistance dog.

For a dog to be trained as her assistance dog it needs to be a puppy, which will then live with Elin until they are about 18 months old, then both Elin and Oakley will hopefully spend some time in Sheffield with Support Dogs UK doing intensive training to be approved as a registered assistance dog.

Before this Oakley needs to go undergo puppy training and obtain both Bronze and Silver Kennel club awards, and be working towards their Gold standard awards.

The Rotary Club is looking to raise £2,500 to secure Oakley for Elin, and then will change their target for training the puppy once they have reached their target.

Anyone wishing to donate to Elin’s fundraising can do so here:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/assistance-dog-for-elin/donate

The deadline for raising the money is the end of March as the puppy is reserved until April.