A family of dog lovers who gave up their beloved Labrador because of the ill-health of their youngest daughter are sharing in his success as a fully-qualified support dog.

Fox-red Labrador Wadsley has transformed the life of Brogan Evans, a young woman with severe epilepsy, by giving her a 100 per cent 48-minute advance warning of an oncoming seizure, enabling her to lead a safer, more independent life.

The pair recently qualified as a partnership after being trained by charity Support Dogs. And no-one is prouder of Wadsley’s success than the Wright family from Nottingham, with whom he spent the first two years of his life.

“We got Wadsley when he was just eight weeks old,” says Vicky Wright. “We had three young children, who all adored him.

“Unfortunately our youngest child became ill, and by the time she was two and starting to walk, she was connected to feeding tubes and oxygen, and Wadsley was a big dog. We had to leave him in the kitchen a lot, and it wasn’t fair to him, so we decided we would have to let him go.

“It was a massive wrench because he was a perfect dog.”

The Wrights advertised Wadsley on the Preloved website, determined that as he was one of the family they had to find the right place for him in a loving new home. It took a while – one company got in touch with the idea he might become a security dog, but the family didn’t want to risk Wadsley coming to harm.

Eventually they found the perfect solution when Support Dogs responded to their ad and got in touch. “They came and did a home visit and we thought it sounded perfect for him,” says Vicky.

“We wanted to keep in touch with Wadsley and his progress so we visited the training centre, and that helped us with the children because they could still see him and follow how he was doing.”

Vicky was overwhelmed when Wadsley was selected to be a seizure alert dog, given her young daughter’s condition. “We just felt it was meant to be,” she says. “We learnt about it and followed Brogan’s progress on Instagram and it had us tears knowing how much he has done.”

Since Brogan and Wadsley qualified as a partnership in August, they have been in regular touch with his old family.

Adds Vicky: “Brogan brought him to see us and I warned the children that he might not know them as he’d had other foster carers since he’d lived with us, but he did – Brogan said she’s never seen him be like that with anyone else!

 “Knowing what he can do is incredible.  I have no regrets about giving him to Support Dogs.

"We saw Brogan and Wadsley last week and we’re going to their graduation in November. It will be a very emotional moment.”

Says Brogan: “Wadsley was lucky that for the first two years of his life he lived with and loved this beautiful family. He was so happy to see them all again, and I’m so grateful to them for their gift of this wonderful dog.”

Wadsley is pictured right with 10-year-old Tyler, Amelia, aged seven and Bella, who is five, and with Brogan, above left.

• Do you have a dog that could be suitable as a support dog? We consider most breeds of dog under the age of three. Contact us on 0114 2617800 or via [email protected]

 

• Brogan and Wadsley were featured on BBC1’s The One Show in October.