Hi there, thanks for visiting Billy's page.  Billy's is 6 years old and Autistic.  He's funny - he communicates by using the dialogue from a movie or TV programme, which often makes for hilarious comment! He's very affectionate - a hug soothes him so he hugs a lot (whether he knows you well or not!).   However, he finds situations that are noisy or busy, like school or supermarkets, extremely stressful.  He struggles everynight to settle down to sleep, often taking 2 or 3 hours and so not getting enough sleep.  A service dog would be trained to intervene when he gets anxious, keeping him safe from bolting as well as providing companionship (his school fiends often find Billy to be "weird") and helping him to rest at night.  The lovely folks at Service Dogs Europe are providing Billy's dog in August this year and ask all recipients to fundraise on their behalf towards their work, as each dog costs £10,000 to find and train.  They suggest we donate£6,000, we'll put up £1,000 of our own money and so if we can raise £5,000 we'll be providing a chunk of the funding for a dog, trained to help someone with a disability.