Owner James Hill was medically discharged from the Specialist Military Unit after 14 years of exemplary service.

In December 2013, in Afghanistan, James was involved in a firefight at close range and suffered seven gunshot wounds, which left him with many physical life-changing impairments including drop foot, as a direct result of a transection of the sciatic nerve. James underwent emergency resuscitative surgeries in Afghanistan and was evacuated via Camp Bastion and latterly onto the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. He has since required multiple revision surgeries at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and King’s College Hospital. During this time, James has undergone multiple admissions to the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre for multi-disciplinary bio-psychological rehabilitation and also attended the local rehabilitation centre at his military unit. He will require on-going support throughout his life. James is an inspiration and has supported a number of Charities.

Despite James’ military career being unexpectedly being cut short, he still required long periods of time in the rehabilitation centre, to continue to improve both his physical and psychological fitness.

As well as James coming to terms with the fact that his own life had changed forever, he also had to deal with losing his best four-legged friend, Rocco, in the same incident.

Whilst Serving James had already identified a gap in the market for rehabilitation provision for small animals. After leaving he researched the best form of delivery, best practice and completed due diligence whilst attending courses to enable him to set up a small business. He therefore decided to establish a rehabilitation centre, specifically for small animals.

James realised, that if hydrotherapy rehabilitation helped him to learn to walk again and feel stronger on his feet, then it would absolutely benefit those who could not explain their pain to humans – animals.

 Hydrotherapy helped him go from wheelchair to walk. “In the water, I was non-weight bearing and it allowed me to move my legs in a normal gait giving me better range of movement,” he said. “by sitting in a wheelchair, my muscles just wasted away.”