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| Baroness Thatcher with Canine Partner demo dog Saffy. |
ON Thursday June 4, 2009, Baroness Thatcher opened the new training accommodation facility at the Canine Partners National Training Centre in West Sussex. VIP guests of Canine Partners who provide specially trained assistance dogs to people with disabilities, were joined by generous individual and corporate donors who have funded the new building at a cost of £600,000.
The construction, named The Bradbury Lodge, has six fully accessible chalets and is the culmination of three years’ planning and work. It will enable the assistance dog charity, for the first time, to provide its own on-site training for applicants being partnered with highly trained dogs. Since the system is now more efficient, it means that the charity anticipates an increase in the number of trained assistance dogs it can provide to people with disabilities, on top of the 120 active partnerships already in the community.
Baroness Thatcher was welcomed to Heyshott by Chairman Simon Clare and CEO Terry Knott. She received a tour of the new accommodation facility as well as a demonstration of the truly incredible abilities of a Canine Partner, which include picking up dropped items, taking washing out of the machine and emergency response procedures.
“These marvellous new facilities are a welcome and much needed addition to the work of Canine Partners", said Lady Thatcher. "As a result, many more people with disabilities will receive a specially trained companion to help them overcome the difficulties of everyday life and I am delighted to be able to support everything that this wonderful charity does.”
Chief Executive Terry Knott commented, “We were delighted to welcome Baroness Thatcher to our National Training Centre today. Off-site training has become increasingly expensive in recent years and the Trustees decided it would be better value for money, more cost-effective and operationally simpler, to build accommodation on-site. It means trainee partnerships can bond together, in a close, supportive and stress-free environment. The generous support of our donors has allowed this project to happen and we can’t thank them enough.”
