Wigan clinic welcomes furry friend

Speech and language therapists from Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) were visited by Parker the Labrador as a thank you for their donations to the Dogs for Good charity.

The therapy team decided to sponsor a puppy instead of buying Christmas cards last year, as their work helps children and their families where there are speech, language or communication difficulties, and the Dogs for Good dogs are trained to support children with disabilities and autism, they found their perfect match.

And, as a result, Doris the Labrador, became their sponsored puppy for 2019.

Lynn John, Children’s Speech and Language Therapy Team Leader, said: “We thought that having a team pet would be good for our wellbeing, but, obviously this had to be a virtual pet.”

“As a result we sponsored Doris and each team meeting we have updates about her training and how she is doing.”

Halfway through the sponsorship, though Doris was unavailable, the team was visited by her friend, Parker, an 18-month-old Labrador, and his puppy trainer.

Lynn said: “It was lovely for the team meeting to have a visitor. We all really enjoyed hearing about the work that Dogs for Good do and the enormously positive impact that dogs can have. She added: “Best of all we got to meet Parker, one of the most well-behaved dogs most of us had ever met.”