About ALLY®

“After the deaths of my father and horses, within five months of each other, I experienced firsthand the absence of a recognised provision of support available for people at the time of their pet/animal loss compared with what is available for their human loss e.g. Macmillan and Marie Curie support.

Two years later, following the death of my dog, I began to research what was available to help with pet loss in the UK and found nothing to compare with what I believed to be necessary – an accessible community based support service to specifically help people prepare, manage and adjust to the loss of their pet. This service, which I named ALLY® (ally meaning 'supporting another for a specific purpose') would be provided by staff working from within veterinary practices, animal rescue centres, animal care organisations, schools/colleges, community support agencies and charities forming a net work of support that eventually would be available throughout the UK to help all people experiencing pet loss.”

Following further research and development, ALLY® secured funding from the Big Lottery Awards for All Grant in 2013 to commence experiential accredited training courses. To date (2018) we have delivered experiential courses in Cornwall, Somerset and London.

The excellent feedback we have consistently received about the invaluable personal and professional development opportunities these courses provide for trainees, in an interactive and safe group setting, is now fulfilling our initial intention of raising the benchmark and providing a vital quality service that is making a difference for those experiencing pet loss...

Alison Samuels, founder of ALLY®®