I am raising money for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People by doing the 28 Challenge!

Every penny I raise will help more hearing dog puppies to be trained, so that one day they can transform a deaf persons life.

Hearing dogs are highly trained to alert deaf people to important and life-saving sounds, such as the smoke alarm, alarm clocks and even intruder alarms and baby monitors. They also provide lots of love, companionship and emotional support, which is really important as many deaf people can feel lonely and isolated.

It costs £25,000 to fully train a hearing dog, so the 28 Challenge is a great way to raise funds to train more dogs. Any donation, however large or small, will really help.

I am a full time volunteer for the charity. After years of training puppies, I now have the pleasure of HD Stud Hugo living with me. He has provided me with huge comfort during my own hard times this past year. We are all looking forward to the beautiful puppies that he will father.

So, to the challenge. Some of you may remember that last year I baked a different pasty for each day of February.

Well, guess what! Here we go again! It proved quite popular and raised a fair bit of money not only through sponsorship but also due to the auction at the end and the generous contributions from the HD staff who bought the "half pasties" for their lunch!

The daily pasty posts also provided some light hearted entertainment when we all needed it. Hopefully I can achieve that again.

This year's menu has now been finalised and I hope you'll find some fun recipes in it.

This year I am changing the auction format. The pasties will be divided into 4 weekly lots. You will be able to bid on whichever lots you like.

Each week has a sweet pasty and a a fish/seafood pasty. There's also a couple of vegetarian ones, a few spicy ones and a couple of "old" favourites. Plus a big surprise towards the end of the challenge!

So please sponsor generously as your donations make a huge difference.

Thank You from myself and Hugo. X