I’ve always loved animals, and I’ve always been fascinated by Africa. I founded the charity now known as Four Steps to Freedom in 2015, after seeing the terrible impact of rabies at first hand in the village of Meserani.
My life changed forever after I first visited Tanzania in 2013, on what I thought would be a ‘holiday of a lifetime’.
On the final day of that holiday, I visited an orphanage where I met 36 children all sharing just six beds, living in terrible conditions. I just knew I had to do something to help them, so as soon as I got home to Scotland I started a fundraising campaign to build them a new, modern orphanage.
The orphanage was completed in 2015, and I was back in Tanzania accompanying the children to a social work meeting in Meserani when I stumbled on the aftermath of a brutal anti-rabies dog cull: countless dogs were lying, bleeding and dying in the streets.
Again, I just knew I had to do something.
I was determined to save other dogs in Tanzania from the terrible fate that the dogs of Meserani had suffered, and to protect the region’s families from the lethal threat of canine-transmitted rabies - so when I got home to Scotland, I started fundraising again and the charity now known as Four Steps to Freedom was born.
You can read the full story here, including the rescue of Dolcina from the massacre at Meserani and the beginning of a wonderful relationship with Mbwa Wa Africa.
In 2016, the team in Tanzania called to tell me that a dog had been brought to the shelter, horribly injured following a brutal attack. He had lost a leg; part of his face had been destroyed and local vets were unable to save him. I couldn’t bear to think of his suffering, so I arranged to have him flown to my home in Glasgow, where my local vet agreed to operate on him free of charge.
The dog - known as ‘Gongo’, Swahili for ‘crutch’ - made a full recovery, and has been part of my family ever since: living proof of the sweet nature and incredible resilience of the dogs of Tanzania.
If you would like to know anything more about Four Steps to Freedom, our work and how you can get involved, I’d love to hear from you.