A Wonderful Mid Morning Event With The ABWM

WHAT A DELIGHTFUL day I had yesterday!

Around 60 persons representing a number of local charities and mostly expatriate women held their annual cheque presentation ceremony at the residence of the British High Commissioner in Kuala Lumpur.

The organisers of the event were the Association of British Women in Malaysia (ABWM) which is headed by Ms Lorraine Gordon as the ABWM's Chairman.

PETPOSITIVE was among the 12 charities that the ABWM is supporting this year. However, out of the dozen ABWM supported charities, only seven were present that morning.

This was the second time that PETPOSITIVE was present. This year, the ABWM handed over RM2000 to help Our Society obtain office equipment for our new centre which we have yet to establish.

Last year, their contribution was RM5000. Part of those funds was used to organise Malaysia's first animal-assisted therapy session at the Kepong Botanical Gardens in the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia.

Here now is a picture of the British High Commissioner's wife Jenny McCleary who is also patron of the ABWM handing over the association's cheque to Petpositive to me Anthony Thanasayan, the President.

I found Mrs McCleary to be a very warm, friendly and humble person.

Despite her top position, she mixed and mingled around with everyone freely. Most important of all to me was the fact that I discovered her to be a true dog lover who cares a lot for animals.

Here now is a picture of another VIP at the ABWM event: Lorraine Gordon (Below). Ms Gordon and I had a long chat about how useful pets were to the handicapped and the elderly. She also shared with me about her own experience with disability where she had to move around in a wheelchair for at least a year after an accident. No need to convert anyone over here because Ms Gordon makes a good spokesperson for the disabled herself!


Below is a picture of Terese, the outgoing charity coordinator of the ABWM stealing a quick opportunity to say hello to me just before the cameras went wild. Also notice an unexpected special friend seated at my right. More on him shortly.

The others who represented PETPOSITIVE that morning were Special Events Coordinator and Adviser Lynda Merican, who incidentally is also the past charity coordinator of the ABWM. Seated next to her is the well-known former Star columnist Chong Sheau Ching.

Ching Ching, as she is best known to her friends, represented her mother's network which also was a recipient that morning of a special donation by the ABWM.

Seated on her left is Sally Addington who is no stranger to our society. Sal was quite involved in our AAT session in FRIM last October.


And who is this charming fellow above? (Er. . . , the pooch, I mean.) He is non other than Finbar, McCleary's darling dog who has already travelled to a couple of countries with his owners. The black Labrador was literally my escort for the whole session.

The cameraman (Captain AKS Russell who is not in any of the pictures) and I thought that Finbar was very well behaved. He was able to walk with my wheelchair quite well, much to my surprise and wonder.

And finally, here is the lovely lab again enjoying all the fuss that he was getting from me and his proud owner.

Don't forget to give your pet a hug everyone.

aNt
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