Assistance Dog for Grace

Sebastian has been Grace’s lifeline over the past 8 years, helping her maintain independence and navigate daily challenges. As Sebastian approaches retirement, we are raising funds for Grace’s next assistance dog to continue the invaluable work he has done. Your support will ensure Grace remains independent and hopeful for the future.

My Story:

My name is Grace and I am 25 years old. I am autistic and live with multiple chronic illnesses and disabilities that impact my life significantly.

I have been so blessed to have my beautiful assistance dog Sebastian to help me with my mental health and disabilities since I was 16 years old. This was all thanks to generous donations all those years ago and my family and I will be forever grateful for this. He has allowed me to get to where I am today. He has helped me access the community, be independent, live out of home, go to uni and seek meaningful employment. He has opened up my world and allowed me to do things that I never thought I would be able to do. Without him by my side, my life would be very different right now and I honestly owe it to him for being here today. He is a very important part of my support team.

I am now posting here, alongside my family, asking for some further support, which is incredibly hard for me to do.

Sebastian is 8 now and will be retiring from his working life in the next year or sooner, so he can spend his retirement drinking cocktails on the couch (haha), spending more time at the beach (his fave place) and getting to just be a dog and relax. He is just getting tired and sometime soon he will just need to be at home and rest more. This is common for assistance dogs, retiring anywhere from 8-12 years old.

I am reaching out because I have had the opportunity come up for another dog to add to my support network. She is a nearly fully trained assistance dog through the current organisation who Seb is registered with. Her name is Brinkley and she is a beautiful 2.5 year old golden retriever. As a larger breed, she will be able to support me with multiple things such as my autism, mental health and anxiety, just like Seb does, but also my mobility/health issues from my connective tissue disease, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, auto inflammatory disease and POTS. This would be doing tasks to help me like retrieval of dropped items or medication, deep pressure therapy/anxiety tasks, bracing, opening/closing doors or cupboards, medical alerts and mobility support, plus so much more. Overall, she will be able to help me continue to keep my independence and navigate the world with my disability ongoing even once Seb is ready to retire and be a normal dog!

Again, it’s really hard for me to ask for help but as a disabled person on a pension, with the current cost of living it’s really hard for me to afford this. I was also going to try and apply for NDIS funding for this but after seeking advice, it’s been recommended not to, as it is highly unlikely to get approved, will take far too long and as you might’ve seen the current state of the NDIS is very rocky.

I fear of losing the most incredible part of my support system, having an assistance dog and the independence it has given me.

We are hoping to fundraise $7500 towards the cost of Brinkley and her training. These costs are associated with a portion of the cost of her, the training and certification.

Thank you for considering supporting me, my journey and my family as well.

Any amount helps no matter how small, and if you are not in the position to donate, feel free to share this page. I appreciate each and every one of you and I will keep you updated on the journey!! :)