The Connie Lewcock centre, run by Newcastle Metropolis Council and based mostly in Lemington, has been helped by native charity Wag & Firm to offer a really particular sort of recent ‘good friend’ to the folks they help.
Kate Hierons and her Wag Friendship Dog Wedgie
Wag volunteer Kate Hierons and her 6-year-old pet canine, black Labrador, Wedgie, certified as a Wag Friendship Dog, go to the centre on a weekly foundation. They spend as much as two hours supporting a few of our most susceptible residents with the consolation and companionship a canine can deliver. Most of the ‘mates’ Wedgie has made are earlier canine homeowners who can now not have a canine of their very own, some are additionally bereaved and in failing well being or with mobility points, however he brings quite a lot of pleasure to everybody he meets throughout his visiting instances.
Cllr Karen Kilgour, Deputy Chief of Newcastle Metropolis Council and Cupboard Member for a Wholesome, Caring Metropolis stated: “I’m so proud that our work with Wag & Firm helps folks in our care to benefit from the particular sort of friendship animals can present. Such a help is so essential to our older residents as folks and canines can type a really particular bond. It’s these small methods of help in another way and giving folks one thing every week to stay up for that makes an enormous distinction.”
Diane Morton, Founding Director/CEO, Wag & Co added: “Wedgie makes an instantaneous reference to everybody he meets and has grow to be an actual ‘good friend’ to many individuals on the centre and the opposite locations he visits in Newcastle too. Some folks have all the time had a canine that they’d discuss to, cuddle and share their troubles with and when that relationship is now not there it may be very tough. We discover that the visits folks have from our canines can actually make a distinction to the way in which folks really feel about their lives.”
Wag & Firm is the one visiting canine charity to befriend older canine lovers in their very own properties in addition to in care or medical institutions. They recruit particular folks and their pretty canines, all volunteers, and thoroughly display screen and match them to securely go to fellow canine lovers of their communities.
There’s a large demand for this service throughout the area, the charity has round 400 Friendship Canine and visits over 225 care and medical institutions and 160 folks alone in their very own properties. The charity depends fully on help from North-East folks, grant our bodies and organisations to proceed.
To seek out out extra about how one can volunteer or help Wag & Firm go to: Wag & Firm | Ending Loneliness for Older Dog Lovers (wagandcompany.co.uk)
