Fundraiser for Fergus as dog survives blaze

Ascot: GoFundMe appeal will cover the cost of retriever's vet bills

A fundraising appeal has been launched to support a beloved black retriever who survived a devastating bungalow fire in North Ascot.

Nerys Pearce’s home was gutted by the blaze on Monday, February 26 following an electrical fault in her bedroom.

The ex-army medic, who is paralysed from the waist down, had been at work when she was alerted on her phone that the temperature in her bedroom had jumped 33 degrees and her smoke alarms were going off.

Nerys immediately checked her doorbell camera and realised her 11-year-old retriever, Fergus, was inside the property having spent the morning with her neighbours.

She told the Express: “My neighbours tried to get to the property but it was already so bad that they couldn’t get in to find Fergus.

“By the time the fire brigade turned up, got in the door and searched for Fergus, they found him completely unconscious in my spare bedroom.

“He’d climbed onto the bed to get away from the flames so he was off the floor.”

Crews from Bracknell Fire Station carried Fergus outside and after administering CPR, he started breathing.

An emergency team from Windlesham Village Vets rushed to the scene with oxygen and a smoke inhalation kit with the canine later placed in intensive care.

Nerys, 42, said the emergency response saved her companion’s life.

A GoFundMe appeal has been set up by Nerys’ sister, Gaynor, with the aim of raising £4,000 to cover Fergus’ vet bills and his recovery from the blaze.

The fundraising total currently stands at more than £7,000 after a flurry of donations from the community.

Nerys said: “Everyone was desperate to help me and the biggest way they can help me is by letting me help Fergus and taking the vet bill worry off me.

“The amazing kindness from the community has been so touching.”

She added: “Fergus is everything to me so for me, above everything, is him pulling through and being OK.

“Someone so special like Fergus, he’s my support, my therapy, my access to the world. He literally is everything and I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him.”

Nerys, who has competed at the Invictus Games and currently holds several indoor world records for disability rowing, is facing the prospect of not being able to return to her home for at least a year.

Her specialist disability equipment which was in the property has also been badly damaged.

But she told the Express the support from her sister, wider family and the community has helped her through the ordeal.

“They really have been outstanding, I don’t know where I’d be without them,” she said.

Visit www.gofundme.com and search Help with Fergus’s recovery from house fire to donate.