Dog saved my life after alerting me to breast cancer
A CANCER sufferer says she is only alive today thanks to her tiny Yorkshire Terrier.
Bella Boo, 11, wouldn’t settle in her usual sleeping place and kept trying to lie on Karena Kirk-Drain’s chest despite being pushed away.
She would lick and bounce on the 53-yearold’s chest, causing her severe pain. When she checked her injuries, Karena noticed a lump under her skin.
Doctors confirmed it was breast cancer and booked her in for life-saving treatment.
Karena, of Blackpool, said: “Bella started bouncing on me and at one point she caught me. I thought she’d bruised me, as I was very sore.
“I was feeling around and I felt a lump. I was thinking, ‘Is that a lump inside?’
“I wouldn’t be here without Bella doing that.
“I didn’t think dogs could detect cancer, I thought it was a lot of hoo-ha really, but this proves that they can.”
Bella began acting up in October 2013. Karena said: “Bella always slept on the back of my legs, but she kept lying on my chest.
“Every time I took her off me, she’d crawl back on again. She started laying there and crying.
“I took her to the vets … but they said there was nothing wrong with her.”
Karena said Bella then began to lick her chest before she became even more aggressive.
Karena was later advised by a nurse at a walk-in centre to seek immediate assistance from a specialist cancer doctor.
She said: “The doctor said the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes. That’s probably why Bella was getting more determined because it was spreading.
“Once I got the cancer removed, she stopped straight away and she started lying behind my legs again.”