In a desperate bid to enable their teenage daughter to live some semblance of a normal and fulfilled life, a Dorset family is trying to raise funds to buy an assistance dog.
While her peers are seeing their pals, studying for GCSEs and doing all the other things that most 15-year-olds do, Ella Houlton can only dream about them.
Ella from Poole is autistic, and has ADHD. She was born with the conditions, however it wasn’t until she was eight that she started noticeably struggling with them.
Life has become increasingly challenging for her and her family as her situation has evolved and worsened, with a recent diagnosis of Tourette’s being the latest blow.
Her dad, Steven says: “What’s particularly tough is Ella has always struggled to leave the house to go out, particularly to school, because of her autism.
“But since her Tourette’s, she is pretty much house-bound. “She finds it very difficult being around other people as her tics means she swears and says rude words to strangers.”
He adds: “Her tics also make her run into roads, sit in puddles and fall to her knees or on her back, so when she
does go out she needs a wheelchair.
“Her quality of life has massively deteriorated. She is unable to be a teenager.”
Steven adds: “Unfortunately she is now unable to attend school at all so Wendy (Ella’s mum) has had to quit work to care for her.
“She is being offered home tuition, which at the moment she isn’t engaging with and she’s in a special-provision school which can no longer meet her needs due to her declining mental health.”
The family’s hopes now lie in finding Ella a specially-trained four-legged companion.
“I did some internet research,” says Steven, “and found information on assistance dogs and what amazing support they can offer.”
Unfortunately, he and Wendy also discovered that the wait time to get one via a charity is two to four years, by which time Ella would no longer be eligible age-wise. Immediate action was needed.
“We decided to do a ‘go fund me’ to help us go down the owner training route,” he says.
“The price for the dog and the training is very expensive but it’s the only route that we feel is now available for Ella.
“The dogs do tasks like deep-pressure therapy, know when a tic attack will happen before it happens and up to 30 other useful things.
“With Ella’s love of dogs we feel a trained dog could improve the quality of life for her and for us as a family.
“We’ve been borrowing a family’s golden retriever dog for the last few weeks and have noticed a massive, positive change.”
Ella has a sister who’s 13 but the family struggles to do anything as a group .
“We’d love to be able to go out all together and for my wife and I to be able to go out but Ella won’t be left with anybody or on her own.”
If you’d like to contribute, visit: gofund.me/faf80f07.

by Lorraine Gibson