A NEW LEASH OF LIFE
Pioneering charity’s specially trained canine companions help war-scarred veterans get back on path to good health
HAILED as life-savers, these are the amazing dogs that are helping heal Scotland’s wounded heroes. The speciallytrained animals are being homed with ex-services personnel who have been maimed by enemy bombs or traumatised by the horrors of war.
And, according to the charity behind the ground-breaking scheme, the dogs have been responsible for astonishing improvements in the veterans’ health.
In the year since the Bravehound charity placed its first dog with veteran Paul Wilkie, his devoted springer spaniel has learned how to wake her master from his horrific flashbacks.
She even lay beside her veteran owner in hospital every day as he recovered from sepsis in an extraordinary seven-month vigil.
Another Bravehound pup has finally given a grieving amputee, who was hit by an explosion in Afghanistan, a reason to leave his house.
Yesterday the founder of the charity, Fiona MacDonald, said her dogs and their veterans are creating their very own two-strong squadrons at home – helping the servicemen feel part of a team again.
As well as preventing isolation, the dogs bring their new owners the simple joys of companionship, exercise and loyalty.
‘If we are sending people to fight and risk being killed, we have a responsibility to do what we can to help them,’ said Glasgow-based Miss MacDonald, 53, who started the dog-donating scheme a year ago after realising pups were the key to veterans’ hearts.
Animals have long had a role in military life – 7,000 terriers and medical support dogs played their part in the trenches of the First World War.
Now Bravehound is using a range of breeds, from labradors to cocker spaniel crosses, to help veterans, including those suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, back into good health.
Bravehound has so far homed eight dogs with veterans and has a further ten dogs and puppies being trained. Key to success is temperament, with the animals needing to be patient, kind and loyal. Each pup costs around £15,000 to look after, although the veterans do not have to pay a penny. Recently Bravehound received £9,000 from the National Lottery but is still dependent on donations.
If you would like to donate to Bravehound, please visit: www.glenart.co.uk
PAUL AND IRMA: A reason to live
PAUL Wilkie is in no doubt who to thank for winning his battle back to health: not only the doctors and nurses who gave him medical treatment, but also the springer spaniel who gave him a reason to live.
In a remarkable vigil, Bravehound pup Irma lay beside her master every day for seven months while he was confined to his hospital bed.
Mr Wilkie, a 47-year-old former Royal Engineer, suffered such severe post-traumatic stress disorder after his tours in the Falklands, Bosnia and Iraq that he developed a disease in his digestive system.
With only 36 hours to live after he contracted sepsis from an operation, it was his doting Irma that cuddled him back to health.
In a touching display of tenderness, Irma arrived each morning to sit with him for hours on end as he lay on a drip, then reluctantly left him at night.
Officials at Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital granted special permission exempting the black and white dog from usual rules to join Mr Wilkie in the ward.
Last night he said: ‘Before I had Irma I was suicidal… Irma kept me going.’ While Mr Wilkie is still tormented by post-traumatic flashbacks, his life-saving dog recognises when the nightmares start and licks his face until he wakes up, stopping the terrors.
Earlier this year, when Irma was 16 months old, she won the award for most caring animal in the UK at the Animal Hero Awards 2017 for her devotion to her master.
Miss MacDonald said: ‘With Paul and Irma it was a real case of love at first sight.
‘They go everywhere together. She’s so empathetic and sensitive to his moods.’
JIMMY AND BRACKEN: Loyalty and devotion
HAUNTED by the horrors he witnessed during the genocidal atrocities in Rwanda and Bosnia, former Army chef and medic Jimmy Church finally has a reason to leave the house – his springer spaniel Bracken.
Scared of venturing from his bedroom after witnessing the terrors of war, the 60-year-old had suffered in silence for too long.
But thanks to the loyalty and devotion – plus the wagging tail and innocent playfulness – of his black and white companion, he has been transformed back into his active, determined self.
Where once all of his furniture was piled in the single room where Mr Church was holed up, he now walks five times a day with Bracken around the woodland near his home and along the banks of the River Clyde.
‘Bracken is my baby,’ said the veteran, who worked as a voluntary medic during the Rwandan
genocide. ‘She wakes me up at 5.30am and paws at my face until I take her for a walk.’
Mr Church’s quiet, calm life now is a far cry from the horrors of conflict that tormented him for so long.
The five-year-old springer, he says, is ‘a great little dog’ and ‘a friend for life’.
He explained: ‘When you have something other than yourself to look after, you have to attend to their needs. Now I even put Bracken’s needs before mine.’
MICK AND SASHA: A reason to go on
BLOWN up and grieving, Mick McConnell never thought he would own a dog again. It was 2011 when the former Army search officer and his sprocker spaniel cross Memphis were patrolling ‘the most dangerous square mile on Earth’ on Afghanistan’s front line looking for explosives. The pup and his master were inseparable: ‘He was so chilled and friendly and he just wanted constant contact,’ said Mr McConnell. ‘If you were lying on the bed he’d come and spoon you – he just wanted to be loved.’ But on August 4, 2011, suddenly everything stopped – Mr McConnell had stepped on an IED – and as he lifted his leg the device blew up. ‘I remember Memphis was licking my face.
‘The squadron pulled him back and I could hear him barking – he never used to bark – and he was just barking and barking,’ said the veteran.
In horrific pain, Mr McConnell was admitted to hospital in Birmingham.
Twenty months later one of his legs was amputated but Memphis, physically unharmed, had to complete his service.
However, nothing could keep the pair apart. Memphis was flown to Germany and put in quarantine until the Royal Marines repatriated him and reunited him with his master.
‘It was just awesome,’ said 43-year-old Mr McConnell.
Three years later, Memphis became unwell. ‘I never thought I could replace him,’ he said, recalling Memphis’s battle with lymphatic cancer.
Memphis died in January leaving Mr McConnell inconsolable, alone and utterly tortured by his loss.
Whereas he had been active with Memphis at his side, the veteran resorted to staying indoors and sleeping during the day.
His salvation came with Bravehound’s Sasha, a liver and white eight-month-old sprocker spaniel who loves having her tummy rubbed.
‘She’s given me a reason to get out of the house again,’ he said.
‘You have to walk her and you have to give her exercise. She’s so much fun and runs about all the time.’
Mr McConnell and Sasha are a long way from the horrors of Afghanistan and while he will never forget Memphis, Mr McConnell feels ‘really lucky’ again.
LEE AND SOCKS: Unbreakable bonds
WHEELCHAIR-bound Lee Aitchison is one veteran who understands the healing power of dogs, so he is helping to train Bravehound pups to become companions.
A minor training injury turned neurological disorder meant the 31-year-old veteran lost the use of his legs, but his black labrador Angus comforted the former Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineer until he felt confident once more.
The pair, he said, have an ‘unbreakable bond’.
Now Mr Aitchison is giving fellow veterans the chance to experience that close canine connection by training the next generation of Bravehound pups.
He looks after the dogs for a year, walking and training them every day, then matches them with a suitable veteran.
‘I want to help. I know how much a dog can help you with your mental health. It’s like having a friend that’s always there,’ he said.
Socks, a labrador pup, is his latest recruit.
The red-haired 17-week-old has huge paws and white socks – hence her name – and is a bundle of fun, throwing balls around the room and playing with the veteran’s other two dogs, Angus and Hamish.