Charity’s dog scheme for brain injury patients under threat

Headway Suffolk’s Brainy Dogs scheme needs £10,000 after losing National Lottery funding, with the charity now appealing to the public to keep it going.

Based in Ipswich, the award-winning initiative rescues dogs and trains them as companions for people with neurological conditions – such as stroke, traumatic brain injury and other acquired brain disorders.

Founded in 2011, the scheme has trained around 10 dogs each year, pairing them with brain injury survivors who often face serious isolation. It won a national award in 2023 for its work.

Helen Fairweather, CEO of Headway Suffolk, said: “After brain injuries people’s personality change, they lose friends and families – the divorce rate is 75 per cent.

“It leaves a person isolated and alone at the very time when they need support.

“You can lose your job and then you’ve got no money so you can’t do things and on top of that you might not be able to walk or speak.”

A GoFundMe appeal has been launched to help cover the rising cost of food, veterinary care, training and transport, with a lack of funding now putting the service under threat.

The fundraiser is aiming to raise £10,000.

The campaign states: “The cost of food, veterinary care, training, and transport has risen sharply, and we are now supporting more people than ever.

“To keep Brainy Dogs running and free to those who need it most, we need your support.”

Fairweather said: “If you talked to any care agency in the country they would tell you they are drastically underfunded by their councils, so we have to rely on other funding to keep these project alive.

She added: “None of us know when we might get a brain injury because it’s totally indiscriminate.

“You could suffer a brain injury at any moment doing any normal activity or even a stroke at any age with no warning.

“We need these projects to help people make a recovery after brain injury but without the support of the public we can’t keep it going.”