Our four- legged life- savers

As any dog lover will confirm, four- legged friends are so much more than “just pets”.

For Kym Stretton, dogs bring a special kind of companionship – one that brings independence and a very welcome lease of life.

Kym has a severe genetic form of rickets that means she needs to use a wheelchair. Her specially trained support dog, red Labrador Retriever Marley, pictured, is by her side to help her get up and down stairs and provide other essential assistance around the home.

Marley is Kym’s fourth support dog, and his role is all the more poignant as he came to charity Support Dogs after being donated by owners who found themselves unable to look after him.

Since 1992, the charity has been dedicated to increasing independence and quality of life for people with a range of medical conditions by providing, training and supporting specialist dogs.

Some are trained to help children with autism, keeping them safe and reducing stress. Others are trained to warn of an epileptic seizure. Disability assistance dogs like Marley are trained to respond to their owner’s specific needs, providing greater independence and safety.

Support Dogs relies heavily on donations to continue its work.

“One in three support dogs simply would not exist without gifts in Wills,” says Kym.

“I’ve gained so much from my four fantastic disability support dogs, and I know there is huge demand for their all three of their programmes; the disability programme which I have benefited from but also their programme to train life- saving seizure alert dogs for people with epilepsy and also autism assistance dogs to help children with autism.

“It makes complete sense to give something back by leaving a donation to support dogs in my Will.

“I know the donation will not only save and improve people’s lives, with a quarter of the dogs they train coming from rescue centres or as unwanted pets, it will also save the lives of many dogs.”