Keswick’s superstar springer spaniel Max, who has raised more than £370,000 for mental health charities, has been named as a finalist in the Amplifon Awards For Brave Britons 2021.
Max, 14, has supported more than 10,000 people through meet-and-greets, charity walks, appearances and school visits in his fundraising efforts.
He has now reached the final four of the Hero Pets category in global-hearing specialist Amplifon’s search for the ‘Best of British’ heroes.
Max will now be invited to the virtual awards presentation on Tuesday.
The event will be hosted by BBC1 Breakfast and Radio 5 Live presenter Rachel Burden and Falklands War hero Simon Weston will be guest of honour.
Max completed his training as a registered therapy dog in in 2015 though he first met his owner Kerry Irving six years earlier.
In 2006, Kerry was seriously injured in a road traffic collision and suffered from excruciating pain, leaving him housebound.
In 2009, when Kerry was finally well enough to leave home, he met Max and began walking him as a form of rehabilitation for the physical and mental implications of his accident.
Kerry began relating their walks on social media, and soon amassed a large following.
It was from there they began using their outings to raise funds, with their first charity event raising more than £1,000.
Since then, the people of Keswick have taken him so much to heart that a bronze statue was erected to him – paid for by public subscription – in Hope Park.
In 2019 their fund and spirit-raising earned Kerry and Max a visit to a Buckingham Palace Garden party, where Max wooed the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
And throughout the pandemic, Max and Kerry have posted ‘virtual’ walks twice daily to their social media platforms to quell the loneliness of followers who were forced to shield.
Earlier this year Max became the first non-service dog to achieve the PDSA Order of Merit for his support of those with mental illness.
Kerry, 56, said: “When I met Max, I was suffering from severe depression and was contemplating suicide.
“I realised straight away there was something special about him, and our bond grew from there.
“He truly turned my life around and I knew he had the power to support other people with their mental health challenges, too.
“Over our years fundraising, we’ve walked with everyone from former military personnel and those who used to work in emergency services, to the likes of Julia Bradbury for one of her TV shows.”
