Animal rescue charity praises Lisburn lads for '˜selfless generosity'

Shakira Murray, a volunteer with Doggy 911 - a non-profit organisation that works to rehome rescue pets brought to Northern Ireland from China - posted a picture of Joel Cunningham, Mattie Connolly, Conor McDonald and Fiachra Crossey on Facebook at the weekend to publicly thank them for their kind donations to the charity.

Posting on Sunday, she wrote: “Yesterday at our bucket collection in Lisburn these lovely boys gave their pocket money then came BACK to share some of the toys they bought for their own pooches. Everyone was so overwhelmed at the selfless generosity.

“We would like to invite them to our next event next Sunday 22nd at Pups in the Pub to meet all the doggies an have a wee day out (on us of course). These lovely kind lads are the future of animal rescue and their parents should be very proud. Please share this post in the hopes they get in touch.”

All four 11-year-old boys are P7 pupils at St Aloysius Primary School in Lisburn.

Proud mum Lisa Cunningham said she had been shocked when people started tagging her in the post about her son and his friends.

“The boys went to town for the first time on their own with no parents on Saturday, so imagine my shock when people started tagging and messaging me on Facebook with this post. The charity were so taken by their generosity and compassion that they wanted to get in touch.

“All the parents are just so very proud of them,” she said.