Giving Amelia her world back with Sammy the Service Dog
A complex neurological condition has changed 14-year-old Amelia's world since 2024. Service dog Sammy will give her some of her life back.
Palmerston North, Manawatu-Wanganui
Looking into your child’s eyes and not being recognised is something I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Seeing fear in those same eyes is something that never leaves you.
This has been our reality with our daughter Amelia (14).
Before becoming unwell, Amelia was a happy, sporty, social teenager. Just before her 13th birthday, she collapsed during a game of netball. That was the start of a complex neurological condition that took away her memory, her independence, and her everyday life.
Amelia’s brain sends the wrong signals. She loses consciousness every few days and when she wakes, she is disoriented with profound memory loss. She doesn’t know who we are or where she is. She describes it as waking up in a world she doesn’t recognise, without knowing where she has come from.
At times she cannot speak and experiences a wide range of debilitating symptoms; including losing the ability to read and write, her limbs not responding, pain and fatigue.
Through extraordinary determination, Amelia has regained many skills. However her condition still has a significant impact on her independence and quality of life and she has a very long road ahead of her.
Amelia has now been matched with service dog, Sammy, through Pawsible Service Dogs.
Sammy will be trained to stay with Amelia when she loses consciousness, keep her calm when she's disoriented and alert for help. He will provide constant safety, recognition of her invisible disability, give her confidence and provide her with a link to the world.
Lizi Guest's involvement (page creator)
I am Amelia's mum, and funds raised will go into a bank account for Sammy's training through Pawsible Service Dogs and his long-term care costs.
Use of funds
All money raised will go to Pawsible Service Dogs for Sammy's specialised training, alongside money for his long-term care. We've been lucky to have Pawsible fund 50% of Sammy's training cost thanks to the support of their funders, we're raising the rest.
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Latest update
Learning to write again 16 February 2026
The best way we have to show people what's happened in Amelia's brain is the change in her handwriting.
When Amelia first became unwell, she was an avid reader, loved making a to-do list, loved writing and school and had pretty solid handwriting. We'd noticed her reading less and less as she became more unwell, but we didn't realise what was happening until she asked me how to write 'To Dad' on a colouring in she had done. I told her, and she wasn't able to write the letters. Her writing was unrecognisable.
For about six months, we didn't see her write at all - and then slowly she started to try again. She started trying to write a list, but it was just squiggles (1). Then she started to write words (2). It was borderline illegible, but if you tried you could read it.
Slowly her writing improved until she could write paragraphs and sentences again, but her handwriting was still impacted. She was writing letters as they appeared, not forming them the way that we learn when we first start writing. For example, an h - to look at - looks like an 'n' with a line. So that's how she wrote it.
For the best part of a year, this was her writing (3) and we thought that we'd never see her normal handwriting again.
One of her incredible teacher aides decided to focus on her handwriting and within a few weeks of handwriting practice - Amelia relearned how to form the letters properly - and it slotted into place (4). We couldn't be more proud of her if we tried.
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