Sarah tackling Tough Mudder to help charity
A 24-year-old woman from Broxburn will be taking on Tough Mudder to raise money to train assistance dogs.
At the age of 21, Sarah Devlin was diagnosed with a Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) after collapsing in work in November of 2018 – a medical condition that causes her central nervous system to disrupt the signals from her brain.
This disorder causes motor and sensory dysfunction, as well as seizures and black-outs, alongside other complex symptoms that can severely impact independence.
Sarah spent 10 months in a hospital bed completely paralysed and had to relearn how to walk, talk, and use her hands again over a period of 14 months total in hospital.
Though she finds her condition manageable, it continues to affect her on a daily basis.
After being discharged from hospital, Sarah joined a local community group called ‘New Beginnings’ which specialise in training assistance dogs to support people with complex needs.
Everyone in New Beginnings is training their own dogs to be assistance dogs, either for themselves or for a family member. An assistance dog is similar to a guide dog or a therapy dog, in that they help support disabled people foster independence.
Sarah said: “New Beginnings are small, but they’re an amazing group of people who have all struggled through things to get where they are, helping disabled people and their families train their own assistance dogs.
“They helped me train Sirius, which has been great for my independence. He provides so much reassurance in going out by myself, which I was really quite nervous to do before as I can be a bit wobbly and get tired really easily.
“He does things like fetching items from the lower shelves in the shops, emptying the washing machine for me, helping me up when I fall over, and lying with me on the ground if I fall down and can’t get up.”
However, the costs associated to train a dog go from £1500 to upwards of £4000 depending on the training required, in addition to the costs already associated with owning a dog.
This can make an assistance dog, and by extension a disabled person’s independence, inaccessible to many people – by raising funds for New Beginnings Sarah hopes the money will help them support more people.
Sarah will be undertaking Tough Mudder – an infamously tough mud-based obstacle course – to raise money for New Beginnings.
Supported by a friend and with Sirius on the sidelines, Sarah hopes to conquer Tough Mudder on July 3 and said: “Tough Mudder has always been one of those ‘always wanted to do one day’ things.
“But when I got out of hospital I put it on my recovery list of things to do – just to prove to myself
that I could.” More information can be found at https://www. newbeginningsassistancedogs.com
You can support Sarah’s Tough Mudder fundraiser and help to train new assistance dogs here: https:// gofund.me/1af2d08e