Watch: Bid to help Lenny the Labrador use his legs again
They say that a dog is man's best friend, but Victoria March is determined to show her love for Lenny the Labrador by helping him to walk again after a serious car crash.
Victoria, a 33-year-old housing manager from Benthall, near Ironbridge, is trying to raise £5,000 for specialist hydrotherapy treatment which could allow him to regain the use of his back legs for the first time since his spine was fractured in the accident nearly two years ago.
Victoria fractured her own back when her car overturned in Norfolk in October 2013. But she was so concerned about Lenny that she refused to go to hospital until she had ensured he had been taken to the vet.
"The emergency vet was unable to come out, and when I heard Lenny crying I got out of the ambulance," she said. "Lenny was left with no movement in his back legs.
"In the end a fireman got into the back of the ambulance with Lenny, and they took Lenny to the vets before I went to hospital."
She said initial X-rays did not show any fractures, but a later examination revealed a compound fracture to his spine. Victoria, of Benthall Court, The Mines, said
the idea of the treatment was to reprogramme his mind so that he can learn to communicate with his legs again. Since October he has been having twice-weekly sessions at Choice Grooming & Hydrotherapy, in Hadley Business Park, Telford, and he also has physio sessions three times a day.
"It's made a massive difference," she said.
She said so far more than £2,000 has been raised towards the cost of his treatment, with news of the campaign even attracting attention on the other side of the Atlantic.
"Someone from America who makes dog collars sent some across which we auctioned off, and that raised about £100," she said.
To contribute to the fund go to here
