Ashley is helping people care for their animals

Whenever Ashley meets a new person the first question she asks is whether they have pets. Though Ashley currently doesn’t have any pets of her own, she always speaks fondly about her family’s animals, and asks for regular pet updates from her mirus support staff. 

When mirus staff saw how happy Ashley was every time she met a dog out in the community, they knew that dog walking could be the perfect way for her to reach her fitness and weight loss goals. Together they researched opportunities for Ashley to become a volunteer dog walker, and found charity Cinnamon Trust.

Cinnamon Trust put volunteer dog walkers in touch with people who can no longer walk their dogs due to old age, illness or disability. The opportunity was perfect for Ashley, and she was soon matched with a lovely dog called Daisy.

Ashley was really positive about volunteering from the outset. She enjoys helping people and this was a fantastic opportunity for her to assist people by doing something she loves; spending time with dogs!

Ashley signed up to walk Daisy every week, and has used her free time to research new places to take her. Ashley’s varied dog walking routes have given her a reason to venture out to more places in her local community, and have helped her to lose weight and feel fitter and healthier.

Having a dog by her side also encouraged Ashley to be more social with the people that she met on the walks. She found that by having Daisy as a focal point, she felt more confident and happy to start conversations with others.

mirus staff said:

“Ashley has become a reliable dog walker, and feels empowered because she knows she is doing a valued job that helps someone else. Her self-esteem has really grown now that she is seeing more of her community and talking to more of the people in it.”

Next, animal-loving Ashley will resume her volunteering role at Borth Animalarium, which was put on hold during Covid-19. She is looking forward to learning more about wildlife from the small zoo’s owners, and spending more time helping to care for lots of different animals.