In April 1999 Mark Storer (from Coalville, Leicestershire - married to Helen, with 5 Children and Colin, the chocolate Labrador) was told that he had testicular cancer and that his cancer had spread to his lungs and lymph nodes - He would require an extensive chemotherapy over 6 months. Thankfully Mark responded to the chemotherapy and a year later was told he was in the clear.
Mark decided he wanted to do something to raise money for the hospital to say thank you. So with the help of his friends, Anil Patel and Peter Little, a charity challenge was organised in the Lake District called The Wordsworth Challenge - £23,000 was raised and given to the hospital to refurbish the very old and tired day room on the On-Cology ward.
Mark and his friends decided they wanted to do more fund raising events to help more people who had cancer, but agreed they needed to have an identity. At the time most of the people who did the first challenge worked for Lloyds-TSB (where Mark worked at that time) and as such Mark suggested the name 'Brown Donkey' as a spoof of the Lloyds black horse. However, Pete Little said "Why call ourselves brown donkey when you have a brown dog - let's call ourselves Brown Dog".
So Brown Dog was formed, named after Mark's faithful chocolate Labrador, Colin.
Sadly Colin died in 2010 aged 12, ironically from cancer - but his legacy lives on!
Brown Dog became a registered charity in October 2005, which included the formation of the Brown Dog Trustee Board.
