Kym Stretton’s progressive health conditions mean she now finds it difficult to dress and undress herself. Thanks to newly qualified support dog Essi, Kym no longer has to rely on her family for assistance – the highly trained Red Fox Labrador helps her to remove her clothing. Kym was born with hypophosphatemic rickets, or osteomalacia, which prevents her from absorbing calcium and makes her resistant to Vitamin D. In recent years, she has also developed spinal stenosis – a narrowing of the spinal canal – and has now lost 50% of movement in her neck and shoulders. “She gets my coat off, or any tops I wear,” said Kym, who lives in Forest Town, Mansfield, with her husband Ray. “That’s one of the big things she does for me. It’s fantastic that each dog is individually trained for the client’s needs, and if anything changes, you can contact Support Dogs and say ‘I need this…’.” Essi, who can also load and unload the washing machine and open doors, is the sixth support dog Kym has had from the national charity Support Dogs. The organisation trains and provides specialist assistance dogs to help autistic children and adults with epilepsy or physical disabilities to live safer, more independent lives.
Essi follows in the pawprints of Kym’s previous support dogs, after the charity trained her pet dog Zeta in 1997, followed by Zoe. Her third and fourth dogs, Baxter and Marley, could assist with stairs, and her fifth dog, Blade, has now retired. It seems Essi has a ‘sixth sense’ – often intuitively helping Kym before she even realises she needs it. “When I come in from outside and need to take my shoes off, I don’t have to ask her for help. There are a lot of things I don’t have to ask her to do – I didn’t know I had dropped my keys in the supermarket, I looked down and she was holding them.”
The recent graduation of Essi and Kym as a successful Support Dogs partnership marks 28 years of the charity’s life-changing support for her. And it’s not only Kym who benefits – her husband Ray, a retired PAT tester, has also felt the impact. “Before I had my first support dog, he used to phone me all the time from work, asking if I was okay,” said Kym. “It was like he relaxed. Before having support dogs, I’d had falls where I’d had to phone him and say ‘I’m on the floor’.” Her support dogs have helped with balance and could fetch help from her next-door neighbours, her parents Iris and Alf Greene.
Kym has served as a Support Dogs trustee for 12 years and as chairman of trustees for six. She has witnessed the charity’s remarkable growth. She recalls there being no fundraising manager when she first became involved, and joined with other clients to help raise vital funds. Over the years, Kym has made lasting friendships, including with fellow client Toni Brown-Griffin, whose dual epilepsy seizure alert and guide dog was trained by the charity. Kym is godmother to one of Toni’s daughters. She now looks forward to seeing Support Dogs move into its new national centre of excellence in Hillsborough, supported by a capital funding appeal.
“This charity has meant everything to me for so many years,” said Kym. “I’ve watched it grow so much, it’s lovely to see. It’s been a big part of my life. The charity means a lot not only to me but also because of the difference I’ve seen it make to other people – Toni’s daughters are 25 and 19 and have never seen her have a seizure. “I can also remember the first autism dog we trained, thanks to Rita Howson, the chief executive, pushing the idea – that young client was non-verbal, but now he can speak two languages.” To find out more about the life-changing work of Support Dogs, visit http://www.supportdogs.org.uk or call 0114 2617800.