Help a dog in need

Hi everyone,

I have set up this fundraising venture on behalf of a lady I am currently working with in my accommodation support role. The lady (I'll give her the pseudonym 'Sarah') is on benefits and cannot afford vet bills for her dog, let's call him 'Rufus'. Last week I visited Sarah and she said that Rufus had lost a lot of weight in a short space of time and wasn't eating properly. I had a look at him (he's always in the garden when I visit so hadn't actually seen him before) and he was very underweight - I could see his rib bones. I said Rufus needed to see a vet ASAP, so on Friday we took him for a consultation. The vet said he couldn't feel any obvious lumps, which would indicate cancer, but he needed to carry out a blood test to find out what's wrong. The blood test is £80 and the consultation charge for that day is £30. Sarah couldn't pay the consultation charge so already owes the vet £30. She's aware that Rufus will likely need some kind of treatment following the blood test, or might even need to be euthanized, which would obviously also cost money.

Sarah is very attached to Rufus and in my opinion he is central to her current wellbeing since she spends a lot of time alone, and I want to avoid him being re-homed just so he can get some medical help. I have tried the PDSA and other charities but to sign up to the PDSA, Sarah will have to pay £90 upfront for vaccinations and micro-chipping and they won't pay towards existing medical conditions. Also, they won't cover the full vet care cost anyway. I am still contacting various charities to see if there are any funds that can help, but in the meantime I wondered if we could raise some money to help as well. Sarah doesn't have many possessions and is selling what she can to get some money, but she has lots of debts anyway, including rent arrears, and I don't want her to get into further financial trouble if she is tempted to borrow money.

Literally anything we can raise will help, and any donation, however small, will be a great help. I've not done anything like this before and don't want to put upon anyone; if you don't want to donate that's absolutely fine as well. Also, just to reassure you all, this is a one-time deal and isn't going to become a regular method of helping out clients!

The deadline for trying to get the money together is the 20th May, since it is quite urgent that Rufus gets some vet care. Due to GoGetFunding's website rules, I've had to put a target above £250, but whatever we raise would be amazing. I will manage the donations and only pay it directly to the vets. I will keep a copy of receipts if anyone wants to see them. If we raise more than is needed, I will donate the remaining money to the Dog's Trust.

If you have any questions please get in touch. If you know of any other charities that might help with vet bills, please do let me know!

Thanks.

Jennie.

P.S. The dog in the picture is not Rufus!