It is with great joy that I can announce that we have reached the excellent milestone amount in the 4Joy Appeal of £50,000 yes, £50,000!

The amount reached far greater than I ever anticipated. The appeal started at the end of August 2013 and I thought I would be lucky to raise £20,000 but with the excellent support of many people fundraising by doing all sorts of things, Jumping4Joy, Swimming4Joy, WashingCars4Joy, Running4Joy plus lots more or just Donating4Joy.

With the money raised we have named nine Guide Dog Pups4Joy starting with Joy (we paid for the first two years of training which cost £10,000), Fletcher, Elsie, Winnie, Charity, Craven, Sarah, Mattie and we are going to name the ninth puppy Joy, so we started the appeal with Joy and we are going to end the appeal with Joy.

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All puppies are doing well with their training, Joy and Fletcher have left their volunteer puppy walkers and have moved on to “big school” where they will start wearing a harness and learning to walk in the middle of the pavement and started learning the difference between left and right, and forward and back. They will also learn to stop and sit at every kerb.

Elsie, Winnie, Charity, Craven and Sarah are still with their puppy walkers, as far as I know Mattie hasn’t been born yet and Joy is still a twinkle in his dads eye.

Alan & Joy

Thank you to you all for your great support and helping me to remember my first guide dog Joy who was the inspiration for this tribute fund.