Just under a year ago my wife Alison and I decided to buy our son a dog. We decided what we wanted – a Yorkshire Terrier costing no more than 100 pounds. This was quite a feat as they cost several times that amount. I had just watched The Secret and I stated that was what we were going to have. The next day on the internet we found Henry, in a town just ten minutes drive away.

We rescued him from a dreadful place. He was one year old, had never been walked or even washed, judging from his awful state. He bonded with Alison immediately. It didn’t take him long to settle in, and he was soon chewing through everything, including Alison’s glasses which had fallen within reach.

A few days later she went to get some new lenses. As Alison hadn’t had an eye test for a few months, she decided to have one. During the test, they found that her optical nerve had ballooned out of all proportion, so two days later she had an emergency appointment at the Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford. They did a brain scan and found a massive tumour sitting on her front right lobe. Two days later, on the 29th April, it was removed at the Atkinson-Morley unit in St George’s,Wimbledon.

It turned out that the tumour, a meningioma, had been growing slowly for up to eight years. There were no warning signs – no headaches, blurred vision – nothing. It should have killed her weeks before the operation. The specialists were amazed that she was still walking with such an immense tumour (it had reached down to behind her eyes and down to her right ear).

Alison was paralysed down her left side after the operation. Her movement would come back, but only after months of rehab and intense physiotherapy. Well, that’s what they told us.

Three weeks after the operation Alison was moved to Haslemere Hospital for rehab. It’s a truly wonderful place, ideal for what a person needs to recover from such an experience. I had been watching The Secret DVD at home, over and over, and every day I would get Alison to picture herself walking our dog Henry, and feel as if she were doing it. Her last thought every night would be of walking around the grounds with our son and Henry.

Two weeks after she was admitted into the rehab unit, the staff allowed me to take Henry in with us, and Alison walked him around the grounds.
I would like to publicly thank everyone involved with The Secret. I know that Alison will make a full recovery and I am grateful for this and for everything else in my life.

Thank you. And thanks Henry