Lottery winner spends lockdown training charity assistance dog
A GRANDMOTHER who won £5.4m on the lottery weeks after she lost her brother to epilepsy is spending her lockdown training a disability assistance dog to help others with physical needs.
Deana Sampson, 57, from Sheffield, began training sixmonth-old Regis, a golden Labrador, shortly before the UK went into lockdown.
She is working with the charity Support Dogs, which is based in the city and appealing for more people to help train dogs.
Ms Sampson said she wanted to help the charity to assist people like her brother Glyn, who died in 1996 at the age of 40, following an epileptic fit.
She said: “The charity is extremely close to me, particularly as it helps people with a whole range of needs and disabilities. I know how much my brother struggled with his epilepsy and he unfortunately lost his life as a result.”
As a result of lockdown, Ms Sampson had to alter her original plans – which included taking Regis out in public to busy places, restaurants and parks – and restrict her training to her kitchen and back garden.
She is taking part in online training sessions with Support
Dogs, which received £7,500 in National Lottery funding in 2019.
Danny Anderson is fundraising manager at the charity, which was previously chosen as a recipient of the Yorkshire Post Christmas Appeal and received £10,000 to fund a dog. He said: “We desperately need more people like Deana to come forward. She is a real lifeline. These dogs give people a totally new lease of life and enable them to do things they wouldn’t previously have been able to do without this support.”
These dogs give people a totally new lease of life
Danny Anderson, fundraising manager at Support Dogs