FORMER Royal Marine Chris Hayes has raised more than £800 with his special tribute to the faithful dog that helped him cope with trauma and experiences of service life.

For Chris, from Newton Abbot, the loss of his amazing therapy dog Odin was an incredible blow.

But as a tribute to his canine best friend who helped him along the road to recovery, Chris came up with a unique fundraiser for the Animals in Distress charity.

He used his metalworking skills to turn the iron baby gate he used when Odin was a pup to turn it into an amazing project to raffle off and raise funds.

His human great friend, former military police officer Caroline Beazley, also from Newton Abbot, takes up the story: ‘I first met Christopher Hayes at the veteran games in Israel a couple of years ago. He looked troubled, but over the week we struck up a great friendship and soon realised that we both lived in the Newton abbot area.

‘Both of us are military veterans, Chris is a former Royal Marine and I am a former military police officer.

‘Following the games we met up a few times and he introduced me to his amazing therapy dog Odin. You could see how much this dog helped him cope with trauma and experiences of service life.

‘Unfortunately Odin got very sick a few weeks ago, and despite the vets doing their very best he passed away.

‘As you can imagine, Chris was and is totally devastated at his loss.

‘This dog that help him when he was at his very lowest and helped him through some very dark times was now gone.

‘Chris is an amazing welder, and to help him through this really difficult time he has decided to raise funds for Animals in distress by taking Odin’s baby gate and turn it into an amazing project to raffle off and raise funds.

‘Chris is such an inspiration to many,’ she added.

Chris said he was ‘incredibly grateful’ to the people who had backed his auction to raise £805 for the Animals in distress charity.

It was the chosen charity of the Pets at Home veterinary team at Kingsteignton.

‘They were absolutely brilliant with Odin at Pets at Home,’ said Chris.

‘I had set a target of raising £500 for their chosen charity but the response from people was fantastic and we ended up raising £805.

‘I can’t thank people enough for that.

‘Odin meant so much to me. He just came along into my life and really helped me through such a hard time.’