Cliff family!

Lottie Changed Our Lives - Help Hearing Dogs for Deaf People Change More!

Having Lottie is something we want to shout from the rooftops, but why would we do that when we can shout from the top of a tall ship instead?!

Alex and Beverley will be climbing to the top of the Cutty Sark in Greenwich to raise awareness and funds for the great work that Hearing Dogs for Deaf People do - a charity that our family have personally benefited from.

Lottie is our fully qualified assistance dog. When she arrived in October 2022, she instantly transformed our lives. The main reason for deciding to apply for a hearing dog was our children; Lottie is trained to alert either of us whenever our children are calling for us, this is most critical at night when we’re fast asleep with no hearing aids meaning we cannot hear their cries for help. Being alerted to the smoke alarm is just as important too. She’s critical for our family’s safety, not just at home but when we stay away in hotels too.

Lottie absolutely loves her job – to her it’s all just one big game where rewarding treats await for everything she does to help us. Around the home she also alerts us to the cooker timer, whistling kettle, microwave, dishwasher, washing machine and doorbell. Outside of the home she knows shop theft alarms and reversing vehicle alarms, and we’re currently working with the charity to train her to alert us to bike bells. With her assistance dog jacket on, she also acts as a visual flag to other people that we have additional needs to be aware of – we don’t always hear people asking if we can move out of the way or public announcements for example.

To us, and our kids, Lottie is worth her weight in gold, and far more than the £25,000 it costs the charity to provide us with a qualified hearing dog. We’d love to eventually fully repay this deserving charity (and more), but we’re initially setting a shorter-term fundraising target to say thank you to Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and help them support other deserving recipients receive their assistance dog.

We’d be grateful for any donations that you are able to provide. We’re paying our own climbing fees so all your donations (after a small transaction fee) will go straight to the charity.

We will also be organising a few local fundraising activities ahead of our big climb in the hope of boosting our fundraising total – so please keep an eye on this page for updates