My name is Sophie, I live in Reigate, Surrey, I am married, have 2 children and I have 2 dogs ( A puggle and a cavapoo) and a cat.

I created Happy Paws and Claws in April 2021 after a pretty difficult 2 years. In 2018, I was working full time in London, living my life like everyone else and then in January 2019 my life was changed as I was diagnosed with a rare leukaemia called Acute Myeloid Leukaemia and was given 2 weeks to live!

I had 4 rounds of chemo and spent around 6 months in hospital and then went into remission! I thought I was in the clear and then 3 months later, I relapsed and my leukaemia came back!

The only way they could try to get rid of the blood cancer was for them to find me a donor so I could have a stem cell transplant - without this, I wouldn't survive.

I had more chemo and full body radiotherapy and then had my stem cell transplant in January 2020. The recovery from my stem cell transplant was extremely tough, I contracted pneumonia and was in hospital for 6 weeks. 

Once home, the recovery took many months for me to feel "human" again and I have had further complications and treatment but I am still here and that's all that matters!

From all the treatment I've had, my brain doesn't work as well as it did, I get tired easily and couldn't face going back to commuting to London and working full time so as a lover of animals, especially a passion for dogs, I came up with Happy Paws and Claws!