The amazing story of one man and his dog. By Ann Evans
Thanks
to the wonders of technology in being able to schedule blog posts,
I'll be at the London Book Fair as this blog goes live. I'm going along with my good friend and fellow author, Karen King and I'm really looking forward to it.
Undoubtedly
we're going to experience book overload! But the book I'm engrossed
in at the moment probably won't be there, as it was published about 7
years ago. I discovered it not through any literary event or at the
library, but at Crufts!
The
book is called Endal, which is a true story written by Allen
and Sandra Parton. Let me share the blurb with you, rather than
trying to explain what the book is about.
Allen
Parton suffered a serious head injury while serving in the Gulf War
and returned home unable to walk, talk or remember most of his life.
He couldn't even remember his wife, Sandra, and their two children.
After five years of rehabilitation, he was still severely disabled.
Sandra
was a nurse so thought she would be able to help her husband, but the
Allen who had returned didn't remember her, and couldn't cope with
what life had dealt him. Determined to be strong, Sandra would have
top fight to keep her family together.
Endal
was a Labrador puppy with problems of his own until he 'adopted'
Allen and Sandra. He was to change their world, and give them back
their family.
At
the Crufts show back in March, the Hounds for Heroes stand was
practically the first one we saw. I had heard of the charity, and as
I'm always writing articles on dogs and dog charities for an on line
magazine, I made a bee-line for it, eager to know more.
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| Photo courtesy of Rob Tysall, Tysall's Photography. |
There
were some military people there helping to collect money to fund the
charity whose purpose is to provide specially trained assistance dogs
to injured and disabled men and women of both the UK Armed Forces and
the Emergency Services.
There was also a young woman on a bicycle
clocking up the miles and raising money as people tried to guess how
many miles she would cycle in the 10 hour stint that she was
undertaking.
And there was a man in a wheelchair. He was Allen
Parton, the founder of the charity with his dog E.J. (Endal jnr) the first dog to be trained under the auspices of Hounds for Heroes.
Allen,
who was in the Royal Navy chatted to me about his life, the accident that put him in a wheelchair,
and how this impacted upon his marriage and family life.
Back in 1991, Allen a Royal Navy Officer was serving in the
Gulf when he suffered a traumatic head injury. After waking from a coma he couldn't
walk, talk, read or write. His memory had gone – he couldn't
recognise his wife, Sandra or his children. He had also lost the
ability to feel any emotion.
Life
could not have got much worse for Allen and his family, and they were
at breaking point. However that all changed when a dog called Endal
came into his life.
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| Allen and E.J. Photo by Rob Tysall, Tysall's Photography |
One
day, around 1997 when Allen's bus didn't turn up to take him to the day care
centre, he begrudgingly went with his wife to where she worked. She
was a puppy walker for the charity Canine Partners.
While Allen who wasn't coping with the difficulties life had thrown at him, wanted nothing to
do with the people there and the pups in training, one particular
young Labrador who was lame in his front paw, decided to introduce
himself to Allen.
Without any kind of encouragement, Endal came over to Allen's wheelchair and tried to get his attention. Ignoring the young dog at first, Endal was not giving up and decided to fetch items from the shelves at this small training centre, to deposit them, one after another into Allen's lap. Tins of soup and all kinds of
things ended up being balanced on his knees as he sat in his
wheelchair. Finally, for the first time in years, Allen smiled again.
The
story then of how this amazing dog turned Allen's life around from
misery and gloom to pride, and achievement is a truly heart warming
story. It's quite clear that Endal was a very intelligent dog who
understood what was needed, above and beyond what he was taught to
do.
Over the years, the amazing partnership between Endal and Allen,
earned him a variety of different doggy awards. After winning the
Millennium Dog of the Year Award, which included a prize of £500,
Allen donated that to Canine Partners. Before long Allen became a
fund raiser for the charity bringing purpose to his life again.
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| Photo courtesy of Allen Parton |
Then
in 2001 Endal was awarded the most prestigious of canine awards –
the PDSA Gold Medal, the canine equivalent to the George Cross.
This
was for saving Allen's life when a car backed into his wheelchair,
knocking him to the ground before running over the wheelchair,
knocking Endal in the process. Despite this, Endal tugged on Allen's
jacket until he'd rolled him into the recovery position; dragged the
blanket from the wheelchair over Allen as he lay there; retrieved his
mobile phone from under the car; and when Allen didn't use it, ran to
a nearby pub where he barked and barked until someone came and
helped. Allen only discovered all this later after watching CCTV
footage.
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| Photo by Rob Tysall, Tysall's Photography. |
This
life changing partnership that Allen had experienced with Endal
starting him thinking about setting up a new charity to help the
disabled of the Armed Forces and Emergency Services.
In an earlier
quote he said: “It has been a dream of mine to have a charity that
works specifically for these people who routinely put their lives in
danger. Hounds for Heroes is our chance of giving people the same
chance that I have had. We owe them a great debt and this is our way
of saying 'thank you'.
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| Photo courtesy of Allen Parton |
Endal
is such a heart warming read. If you want a really moving book to
read, here's the link:
And
if you want to know more about Canine Partners or Hounds for Heroes,
here's their links.
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