Wish comes true Meeting alpaca ‘10 times better than TV’
COSMO the friendly alpaca gave a dying woman an “incredible” start to the day. Helen Hancox, of Keble Road, Moreton-in-marsh, has just days to live because she has a brain tumour.
But thanks to her daughter Jackie Smith, and Cotswold Vale Alpacas, Cosmo provided her with a treat she really wanted.
Mrs Hancox had seen the distinctivelooking animals on a television programme from the bed of her Cotswolds home and said she would like to stroke one.
So Jackie put an appeal out on social media to see if somebody could get one to come to the house where her mother and father Colin live.
It led to Ginnie Meakin, of Cotswold Vale Alpacas at Sedgeberrow, near Evesham, agreeing to bring 12-year-old Cosmo to see Mrs Hancox.
The pensioner loved every second of the visit, stroking the lovable animal and chatting away to him.
Her eyes lit up as Ginnie brought him to her bedside.
The 72 year old said: “Oh you’re beautiful. Oh you’re gorgeous. Aren’t you beautiful?”
Saying hello to the 4ft-high creature, she said: “You are lovely.”
Watched by her husband, Jackie, her other daughter Cat Brain and grandson Dan Brain, Mrs Hancox barely took her eyes off Cosmo.
The animal remained calm throughout the exchange, with Ginnie saying he was clearly relaxed.
She has taken alpacas into schools and hospital homes before but said the trip to see Mrs Hancox was something of a one-off.
Mrs Hancox said it was the first time she had seen an alpaca, a species related to camels and originating from South America, at close quarters.
She was delighted when Ginnie gave her a miniature model of Cosmo to keep.
Still addressing Cosmo, Mrs Hancox said he was able to “make things wonderful for people, even for me”.
She added that seeing and touching an alpaca had been “10 times better” than seeing one on the TV.
Just before Cosmo left, she told him: “I’m very happy to have met you. You won’t half make me remember you.”
Then she said: “That was incredible, fabulous. Well done Jacks.”
Jackie and Cat said their mother seemed happier and brighter than she had been for a long time.
Cat said their brother, Stuart Hancox, had not been able to attend the event because he was at work.
Mrs Hancox fractured her hip in a fall on April 5 and scans revealed she was suffering from a brain tumour.
Doctors told her family the tumour could have been there for up to seven months.
In 2017, they suffered a tragedy when Mrs Hancox’s eldest grandson, 26-yearold Matthew, was killed in a motorbike accident near Banbury.