Ella and The Happy Badger spread some furry happiness

Today I have had 2 furry visitors spreading joy. The first was a gorgeous PAT dog called Ella, she is a chocolate lab which has to be one of my all time favourite dogs, my other furry visitor was the Happy Badger who stopped by my blog.

The Happy Badger just loves creating happiness and with help from www.ao.com he is asking bloggers to write about their favourite charity and he will kindly donate £50 to it.

There are many charities close to my heart, Neuroblastoma Appeals for children to have cancer treatment the NHS doesn't fund, Christian Blandford Fund which does so many things. A lot of charities and appeals are for big fancy amazing things and while that is needed there often isn't support for the smaller day to day things that can make a difference. The first thing the Christian Blandord Fund provided was decent curtains for the children's ward so poorly children no longer woke up at 5am in summer. Other charities close to my heart are DEBRA, Tymes Trust, Me and Dee, Chelsea's Angles, the list is endless so I asked if could choose two and the Happy Badger kindly agreed to make a £25 donation to both charities.

The first charity is AYME. It supports children and young adults with M.E and provided so much support during difficult times to my family. When I was 17 my M.E was so bad I was bedbound, unable to talk, stand, sit up or do anything and was desperately isolated. Members of AYME sent me cards even though I couldn't reply and it became the only thing that made me smile during those difficult months. You have to leave AYME when you turn 26, it used to mean people didn't have support but now they have AYME Grads for older people. I would like for half of Happy Badger's donation to go to the AYME Grads SAMS team (sams= severely affected members) so more bedbound adults can receive cheerful post.

The post I received from members of AYME, inspired me to set up the charity Post Pals which asks members of the public to send cards, letters, emails and little gifts to cheer seriously ill children up. It will be used to send some personalised cards to children who have watched a sibling battle a horrible illness before passing away. Often when a child dies so does all the support a family received so we aim to keep helping the families for as long as they need that support.

Thank you Happy Badger for creating smiles with your generosity.

Ps) Can you believe just after writing this I had a surprise visit from Popcorn the hamster!