Headway Suffolk

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Everybody Needs Hope

A new book telling the story of Hope – Headway Suffolk’s once unwanted Brainy Dog – through her own eyes has been released to help the project survive.

Everybody Needs Hope charts the life so far of five year-old Hope, a black Labrador crossed with a Cocker Spaniel, who provides therapy to adults with a brain injury or a neurological condition during rehabilitation sessions at the charity.

Deemed unwanted and ‘good for nothing’ as a working breed by her owners, Hope was saved by the project’s co-ordinator Sophie Wellum-Mayes in 2012, who found her quiet and placid nature the ideal temperament to help clients in their recovery.

Hope has been integral to the success of Brainy Dogs, interacting with hundreds of clients and showcasing her skills over the years, as the project has gone from strength to strength. But once again, she faces an uncertain future with funding due to expire in October.

 

In a bid to keep the project alive, Sophie has turned her hand to penning the book, with huge support from Happy Self Publishing, to get the book published.

“With the funding due to expire in October, I had to think outside of the box and thought ‘what else can I do?,” said Sophie.

“The book is written from Hope’s point of view and starts from when she was an unwanted puppy, and goes between work and home life, including being trained by prisoners at HMP Hollesley Bay, and the events we have done. The last chapter is called ‘an uncertain future’.

“Our aim is to raise awareness of Brainy Dogs and encourage people to donate or buy the book.”

Everybody Needs Hope is available on kindle, priced at £3.76, and in paperback, priced at £8.99: www.amazon.co.uk/Everybody-needs-HOPE-worthless-charitable/dp/1721676309.