Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Pet detective Ace is a real lifesaver
Dog smells Natasha’s deadly allergy attacks
A GYMNAST with a deadly disorder that makes her severely allergic even to her own hair has found her lifesaver – a dog who SMELLS when she is about to have an attack.
Labrador Ace has been trained to detect changes in Natasha Coates’s breath or sweat – a tell-tale sign.
As soon as he senses an attack, the dog sits and stares at her – then jumps up at her until she takes her medication.
Natasha, 23, said: “Up to ten times a day now Ace will tell me I’m about to have an attack giving me time to take a rescue antihistamine.
“I then lie down and Ace lies with me until I feel well again.”
Natasha has incurable MCAS – mast cell activation syndrome – which causes severe symptoms to everything from the weather, her hair, and even exercise.
She said: ‘I’m basically severely allergic to everything. Once an attack happens I can’t take oral pills because my tongue and throat swell up.
“I’ve used hundreds of EpiPens and been in intensive care more times than I can remember.”
She was first diagnosed aged 18 and as her illness grew worse she suffered 25 life-threatening reactions – spending longer and longer in hospital.
“Three years ago I started to plan my own funeral,” she said. “There’s no cure
Ace is my saviour, my best friend ... he has given me my life back NATASHA COATES WHOSE DOG SMELLS HER ILLNESS
for my condition, and every day I feared would be my last.”
When 14-month-old Ace joined her in March her life transformed.
“I’ve only been to hospital once in the last year, which is a miracle,” Natasha said.
“Ace is my saviour, my best friend, he has given me my life back.”
Natasha threw herself in to gymnastics at 18 after giving up her dream of being a paramedic and has won over 22 GB disability golds.
“Ironically, exercise can be a trigger, but gymnastics is the thing that kept me going,” she said.
Ace is now a regular at Natasha’s gym, where she trains up to five hours a day. And for the first time in years she can travels on buses and meets friends without an accompanying adult.
Natasha, of Nottingham, discovered detector dogs in an online video of an MCAS sufferer in the US, and contacted UK charity Medical Detection Dogs.
“I was told they’d never trained any of their puppies to detect MCAS, but after filling in my application forms I was overjoyed to hear they would give it a go.”
Natasha provided breath and sweat samples when she was ill and, during six weeks of intensive training, Ace earned a treat each time he identified them.
Training dogs like Ace costs around £30,000 and the charity relies entirely on public donations and contributions from The People’s Postcode Lottery.