‘HE WAS THE MEDICINE MY HUSBAND NEEDED’
Debbie Hall, 59, is a carer and lives in Shortstown with her husband Olly, 65. Staring into my husband’s eyes, I begged him to continue fighting.
It was September 2016 and Olly, then 58, was in the midst of gruelling chemotherapy to treat non-hodgkin lymphoma. He was drained, all the energy sapped from his body, and I feared that he might give up.
I knew he needed something to keep him going and that’s when a friend told us about a Staffordshire bull terrier – or Staffie – for sale. From the moment I looked into his big brown eyes, I just knew that he had to come home with us.
We named the dog Kemo and he became the life-saving medicine Olly needed.
After his treatment ended in April 2017, Olly and Kemo would go on long walks together and were practically inseparable. We could barely remember a time before Kemo was in our lives.
So when he vanished in February 2018, we were all utterly distraught. Olly had walked him as usual, but he had raced around a corner and never returned.
We dropped everything to try and find him. When we called the police, they didn’t seem interested, so friends and local walkers joined our search instead. We launched drones and even promised a £2,000 reward – but it all led to nothing.
Now, four years have passed and we miss Kemo every day. He brought us so much relief and joy and I am terrified that the worry Olly now endures will make him poorly again.
We have hope that Kemo will find his way home to us. But until then, there’s a hole in our hearts that just can’t be filled.