A TEAM of dedicated dogs who support seriously ill children at Southampton's biggest hospital have been handed a national award.
Southampton Children’s Hospital (SCH) therapy dogs are a team of seven golden retrievers and four handlers.
Retriever Leo and handler, Lyndsey Uglow, recently went to a black-tie dinner event for the national Animal Star Awards.
They collected the Inspirational Animal Hero award for the SCH Therapy Dogs team, which works across all the wards at Southampton Children’s Hospital from day-wards to intensive care.
The dogs and their handlers work with the medical staff to support children and create positive memories of their time in hospital.
Since they first started visiting through the Pets as Therapy charity in 2012 they have seen more than 10,000 patients.
Lyndsey said: "Whether it is just to stroke a dog and say hello or something bespoke for a particular patient like helping with their physiotherapy or distracting them while having a test, the dogs are there with their volunteer handlers as part of the clinical team."
Two years ago, the team was at Crufts where Leo was awarded the prestigious Kennel Club Friends for Life trophy for the inspirational work these therapy dogs do at Southampton Children's Hospital.
The award was presented by James Middleton who subsequently wrote the foreword for Lyndsey’s book "Leo & Friends - the extraordinary dogs with the healing touch" which she wrote during lockdown and was published recently by Harper Collins.
This Sunday, the team will be back at Crufts as the previous winners and guests of the Kennel Club Charitable Trust where they will be signing their book.
Lyndsey added: "Our book 'Leo & Friends - the extraordinary dogs with the healing touch’ was written in lockdown when we couldn’t visit and support to the children at Southampton Children’s Hospital and were limited to zoom visits only.
"We have been back at work seeing the children in person since May 2021 supporting both the children, their families and the staff."
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