Dog delight fulfils Ann's dying wish

Thirty-eight-year-old Ann Black, died on Saturday after a spinal tumour spread to her neck.

When she was told she had only days left to live, Ann, from Rishton, came up with a ‘bucket list’ of things she wanted to do before she died.

Staff at the Royal Preston Hospital then rallied round to help grant her wishes, which included arranging one last ‘Christmas Day’ and a masseuse to give her a pampering session.

Ann was also a big dog lover and had to rehome her own dogs when she had an accident that left her paralysed several years ago.

The critical care team arranged for Ann to spend time with a PAT (pets as therapy) dog. She had two visits from Lola, the four year old Shiatzu as well as Iskra, a chocolate labradoodle.

After the visits, Ann said: “Lola and

Iskra are beautiful and spending time with them really helps me to relax and cheers me up. I have always had dogs and I am a big dog lover.”

PAT dogs are used to bring comfort and happiness to people with a range of disabilities and emotional needs, including those in nursing homes, rehab facilities, hospices and special needs schools.

Rachel Moses, consultant physiotherapist, arranged many of the things on Ann’s bucket list.

She said: “We wanted to make Ann as happy as we possibly could and myself and all the staff here on the critical care unit have done everything within our power to help her achieve her bucket list. When Ann told me how much she loved dogs I really wanted to arrange for her to spend some time with a PAT dog- it was such a pleasure to see how much joy it brought to her and our staff love the dogs too.”