Keswick’s celebrity spaniels Max, Paddy and Harry have reached heady heights with their latest fundraising challenge.
The trio’s owner Kerry Irving climbed Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest mountain at 4,413ft with Paddy and Harry, raising £42,000 for the PDSA.
Max, now aged 12, had to wait patiently at the bottom of the mountain as he is a little long in the tooth to complete the epic walk.
However, Kerry was determined that Max would not miss out completely and carried a toy replica — Mini Max — to the summit so that he appeared in some form in the photos.
Kerry said this was the first big fundraising event he had undertaken without Max by his side.
The Mini Max toy dog was given to him by a young supporter of the multi award-winning canine ambassadors who have almost 120,000 followers on their Facebook page Max Out in the Lake District.
Kerry said: “It was hard without Max, but Harry and Paddy did good, and Max was waiting at the bottom.
“We had a live tracker so that people could follow our journey every step of the way. We set the fundraising target at £2,000 but we have well exceeded that.”
There is also a raffle being held and all the fundraising efforts will culminate on Max’s 13th birthday on 15th August, when Kerry and his wife Angela are planning an event in Keswick.
The Ben Nevis fundraiser has broken the PDSA’s record for the largest sum raised for a single volunteer challenge in such a short time frame.
However, the date for the challenge remained a big secret until Wednesday so that the trio’s huge band of friends and supporters did not turn up to support in Scotland.
Max is well-known for the life-changing role he played in helping Kerry overcome depression after a car accident left him with crippling back pain in 2006.
Kerry has written a best-selling book called Max the Miracle Dog.
There is still time to support Kerry and Max, Paddy and Harry’s Ben Nevis fundraiser by donating at https://bit.ly/2P2nWTm
