Let's Help Change Someone's Life!

My name is Angela.  I have Cerebral Palsy and am a wheelchair user.  In school I would often drop things and struggle to pick them up - but I eventually did.  It wasn't until I would come home from school with a sore back day after day from reaching down (and almost loosing my balance) that both me and my parents decided we needed to find a solution.  Then we found the Lions Foundation of Canada.

In 2001 I was matched with a beautiful "gentle giant"...a Chocolate Lab named Yogi.  With him by my side, I was no longer stuck - he could reach things I couldn't.  If I was in a situation where I needed someone's help, he would bark until someone came.  It's the simple things - fetching items, taking clothes off, opening and closing doors.  All of these mundane, everyday tasks are "the norm" for able-bodied people.  However, for someone with a physical disability, they may seem impossible.

Yogi helped me achieve a level of confidence that I never had before.  A sense of "normalcy" and independence that I thought might be unattainable.  In November of 2010, I had the pleasure of receiving my second Dog Guide - a silly, yet eager to learn anything, Black Lab named Digby.  He too, provides all of what Yogi did as far as the physical tasks, but with a level of maturity that still resembles a puppy (I guess he never got the memo that he had to grow up!)  In addition to all the physical assistance he provides, there is the immeasurable joy and laughter he brings me on a daily basis.  I have the Lions Foundation to thank for this.

It costs approximately $30,000 to train, and place a Dog Guide and my hope is to raise funds so that other Canadians with disabilities can experience the same sense of security and independence that I have gotten. 

Digby, Yogi (in spirit), and I thank you for your generosity and support.