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Giving Amelia her world back with Sammy the Service Dog

  • Sammy has arrived :)

      2 August 2026
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    Last week, thanks to all of your support, Sammy arrived for his permanent placement with Amelia.

    The next few weeks are about finalising his training with Pawsible Service Dogs, and training us all to be handlers.

    As parents, there aren't words for what it means to watch Amelia's little shadow follow her everywhere, and see her do more and more normal teenage things without us hovering. She's stepped straight up to the responsibilities of dog ownership - including the aftermath of a tummy upset...

    Amelia's also recently been diagnosed with POTS, a signalling issue that sends her heart rate incredibly high and means she often has to sit down to bring it back to normal. As a young person, she's very aware of people trying to work out why she's sitting down when others are standing. Sammy's "Medical Service Dog" jacket makes it clear something else is going on.

    She's been able to catching the bus into town to see friends with Sammy rather than us having to drop her off, and we don't have to be uncool and tell her friends what to do in an emergency because it's all carried in Sammy's jacket. She is already so much more independent.

    Thank you to everyone who has shared, commented, read her story or donated. Having Sammy is one thing, but to feel the support of so many people is an unexpected and very welcome sense of community after such a hard experience. We're committed to paying this forward, so more people get this same life-changing opportunity as Amelia has with Sammy.

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  • THANK YOU

      30 May 2026
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    Honestly, we've been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support since the RNZ story went live. It's meant so much to hear from other people and whānau living with FND and to hear how much it meant for them to see their stories reflected on such a big scale.

    In the last month, we've had some other incredible support. Amelia's friends from intermediate organised a fundraiser event at the movies and it was a sellout. 80 people turned up - two full cinemas, and it was very special to have Sammy there too to practice his first trip to the movies. When you are 14, 21 months is a long time - the fact that these kids (and their mums) still make an effort to keep in touch means so much, and it was such a special thing to be part of.

    Secondly, The Middle Districts Lion Foundation granted $1000 to Pawsible Service Dogs in Amelia's name. This was so generous and we are hoping to attend a meeting soon to be able to thank them in person.

    Thank you again for your kind messages and for your donations - we've had a really rough few weeks and it's really helped us to keep rolling.

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  • A setback

      27 May 2026
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    This incredible story from Radio New Zealand went live today. This was filmed in February, and unfortunately in the last few weeks Amelia's had a significant set back. She's been unable to speak for 2.5 weeks with increasing memory loss and confusion, so hearing her in this and knowing who's in there means so much.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/health/596434/it-s-like-waking-up-in-another-world-mysterious-illness-keeps-knocking-out-teen

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  • Thank you!

      23 March 2026
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    Thank you again to everyone for your incredible support. We've had a big month, and it feels like we are one step closer to Sammy completing his training.

    Last week, Amelia had the opportunity to visit the national paediatric neurological rehab unit in Auckland. This is the only place in the country that has specialists who are familiar with Amelia's condition. Getting to the unit has been a goal since Amelia became unwell, but it has taken until now for her to be stable enough for them to see her.

    While in Auckland, she completed more training with Sammy. He was extremely happy to see her (and vice versa!). He had to have a moment to calm down outside the cafe they visited once he spotted her, which is a really positive sign for their bond. The next job for us is to make some voice recordings of Amelia saying various commands which will be used to train Sammy. Amelia will have these voice recordings on a special app for when she is nonverbal so that she is still able to command him (alongside hand signals). To be honest, it will probably be quite useful for her to tell her three-year-old sister what to do as well! All going well, Sammy is scheduled to finish training and be placed with our family at the end of June.

    Thank you again for following along with Amelia's journey, it has made such a difference to her (and us) to see the community support in what has felt like a pretty isolating journey.

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  • Learning to write again

      16 February 2026
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    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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  • One training visit closer to Sammy being here.

      15 February 2026
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    Sammy has been in Palmy for another training trip with Amelia and it's incredible to see them together. For such a young pup (just over a year old), Sammy is such a calm, composed dog and Amelia's impressed us all with her commitment to being trained as a 'handler'.

    One of the things Sammy is being trained to do is to notice if Amelia starts fidgeting with her hands or jiggling her legs - a sign that her brain is getting tired and she's pushing through it. He will see this, and come and rest his chin on her leg or hand to kind of say 'hey - you might want to stop and check how you are feeling.'

    The other big one is learning how to get help when Amelia needs it. We will have doorbells all over the house that will set off an alarm when they are pushed. He's learnt how to push these doorbells when he's told to 'get help'', and is getting ready to learn how to do it on a hand signal for when Amelia can't talk. The last step will be for him to press it without a command, when he notices something is wrong with Amelia.

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  • A message from Amelia

      8 January 2026

    Thank you so much for all the donations! I am beyond grateful and in disbelief, every single one is one step closer to Sammy coming home. We’ve made some posters which we’re putting up around different businesses and it’s meant so much to see how many people want to support by spreading the word. Sammy will be coming down to continue intensive training with me for the first time in early February, which is really exciting. We've been experimenting with different buttons that he can use to let people know if I need help at home or school, so it’s starting to feel really real. Again thank you so much for all the support.

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  • Amelia and Sammy

      31 December 2025

    In March 2025, Amelia first met Sammy at a home assessment as part of her application for a service dog.

    As Sammy grew, he started to show all of the qualities that Amelia needed from her service dog.

    To be matched with a dog, the dog needs to go through temperament and medical checks, have the right qualities for their handlers needs, and to have a bond with their prospective handler. Sammy was officially matched with Amelia just before Christmas, and is now entering advanced training. Each service dog costs over $25,000 to train and place with a handler. This includes purchasing the dog, vet care, and advanced canine training.

    As a charitable trust, Pawsible Service Dogs has raised $12,500 towards Sammy's placement with Amelia thanks to the generous support of their funders and donors. We are aiming to fundraise $17,000 to cover the remaining $12,500, alongside his first year of assessments, and his longer-term care costs.

    There is no government funding for service dogs in New Zealand, so we will be fundraising through our community and applying for grants.

    More information about Disability Assist dogs in NZ can be found here: https://www.dia.govt.nz/Dog-Control-Disability-Assists-Dogs

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