Willberry was contacted by a lovely lady called Charlotte to ask if they could help make a wish come true for her good friend Heather.  Heather had suffered brain injuries and was registered disabled, but then was sadly diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in her adrenal gland.  Charlotte has been trying to make as many happy memories for Heather as possible, and Willberry was delighted to see his team jump into action to help make another special event for Heather.

Heather has a sweet cob cross mare called Polly who she determinedly rode through her first chemo treatment and is still out competing when she is able.  Charlotte knew she would just love to go to an adult riding camp with Polly, and so plans were made for her to go to Aston le Walls riding camp in the summer.  Heather was absolutely over the moon when she heard the news, but there was a second issue that she had no transport to get Polly there.  “No problem!” said Willberry, and they enlisted the services of the excellent AWE Horse Transport, owned and operated by the lovely Amber Woodhouse.  Amber was immediately on board with the scheme, and kindly offered her ongoing support for the charity in the future.

So at the beginning of August, Amber collected the precious cargo Polly and took her to Aston le Walls for an exciting few days ahead..   Polly travelled well in absolute luxury in the smart little two horse box, and she was very happy indeed to be treated to a haylage net!

The camp turned out to be absolutely super, the weather was lovely and with a good breeze so humans, horses and dogs didn’t overheat. Charlotte had booked herself a place with her horse too, but suffered a huge disappointment when Billy went lame just days before the camp and was unable to go.  Undeterred, Charlotte went anyway without her mount, and supported and cheered on Heather throughout each day.  Aston is a first class venue for these events, and the camp organisation was excellent.  Polly hadn’t done a stay away camp or competition before, but she took it all in her stride. Heather and Polly were treated to four lessons over the two and a half days, with two grass XC sessions, one arena SJ and one arena XC. Polly had previously only done one arena XC competition prior to camp but absolutely loves her jumping and didn’t seem at all phased by rustics or jumping on grass. Heather said “Polly dragged me into the jumps apparently loving her camp activities!”  Many positive comments were received from the instructors about Polly and her potential, she’s such an honest pony and really tries her best. Heather was so thrilled to be able to take Polly away for some intensive instruction, something she couldn’t have afforded to fund herself. Their neighbour in the lorry park and stables had ovarian cancer and over a long dinner the new friends discussed how essential horses were in maintaining motivation and giving a purpose to each day in the face of such an awful illness.  

Charlotte told us, “We are lucky to be a part of such a wonderful community through our united equine passion.  The whole weekend went so smoothly from start to finish and I can’t thank you and Willberry enough for making this possible. The cards Heather have been dealt seem so unfair and this was such a lovely bit of escapism for her.  She is so so grateful to Willberry and the Wish team for giving her what she called “the mental holiday from my day to day reality.”

Heather is now saving up and determined to get to another camp, hopefully with her good friend Charlotte and her horse Billy to share the fun.  Keep #kickingcancers butt Heather!! 💗