A dog lover plans to really push the boat out and kayak 200 miles with his pet dog to raise money to his local RSPCA branch.
John Oakley is an RSPCA volunteer and will spend eight days kayaking with his rescue dog Max from Oxford to Warrington next month, as part of a fundraising challenge.
The father-of-six from Warrington is taking on the adventure, which will see the pair paddling up various canals, to raise money for the RSPCA Warrington, Halton and St Helens branch where Max came from.
The pair often enjoy kayaking together in their spare time, earning his dog the nickname of Pirate Max, but for this event they will be on the water for eight days.
The journey works out at 25 miles per day, which gives John the unenviable task of paddling almost a marathon per day.
The 200- mile adventure will see the pair camping along the canals and follows a similar fund-raiser the pair took part of in 2016 when they kayaked 100 miles and raised over £3000 for the branch.
Their latest challenge will start on Sunday 16 September in Oxford and finish on Saturday 23 September at the London Bridge Inn in Appleton, Warrington around 1pm.
Commenting on the challenge, John said: “We were overwhelmed by the generous support we received in 2016 and have seen the difference those donations made to the animals at the branch. It’s going to be a difficult challenge, but I know Pirate Max will enjoy it as much as he did last time, by my arms probably won’t.”
RSPCA Warrington fundraiser Natalie Bargery, said: “John is a tireless supporter and volunteer for our branch, he does so much for us every week. We are so grateful that he’s chosen to take another, even bigger challenge to raise money for our branch.
“We want to support them as much as we can. We will be holding a welcome home event for John and Max at the London Bridge Inn on Sunday 23 September and would love people to come down and join us.”
The RSPCA Warrington, Halton and St Helens branch is a cruelty case boarding centre, which means that the animals in their care have been removed by inspector due to neglect or abuse.
If you would like to sponsor John and Max, you can by visiting his justgiving page https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/piratemax
