As heart-warming ends to a series go, they don’t get much more heart-warming than this episode.
Hypo Hounds is a diabetic alert assistance charity, helping children with type 1 diabetes by training assistance dogs to not only detect hypos, fetch testing kits or even bring a bottle of Lucozade, but helping children to live with more independence and freedom, and families to communicate better and feel less burdened by the challenges of type 1 diabetes.
The woman behind Hypo Hounds is today’s guest, Jane Pearman. Jane and her husband trained their first hypo dog, Scooby, to help their daughter Sophie after she was diagnosed with brittle type 1 diabetes as well as other major health complications at the age of 9. At the time Jane was checking Sophie’s blood sugars every hour through the night, feeling understandably frightened and exhausted.
They didn’t know it at the time, but Scooby would inspire the journey to founding Hypo Hounds, which has now trained 54 dogs to date, reducing hospital admissions and giving children and their families much-needed independence and relief from the burden of living with diabetes.
Thanks to the help of Scooby and her second Hypo Hound Dori, Sophie, now 22, lives independently and remains an incredible spokesperson for the charity. Heart-warming, emotional, inspiring - I couldn’t urge you to press play on this episode more!
CONNECT WITH HYPO HOUNDS:
Follow Hypo Hounds on Instagram.
Follow Hypo Hounds on Facebook.
Visit the Hypo Hounds website.
JOIN THE TYPE 1 ON 1 COMMUNITY:
We’ve got an Instagram account! Come and say hi @studiotype1on1.
SPONSOR MESSAGE:
Thanks to my episode sponsors Dexcom.
Pioneer and leader in Real-Time continuous glucose monitors, Dexcom's goal is to simplify and improve diabetes management for every possible person with diabetes.
They have a choice of systems, so you can find the right one for your lifestyle at https://www.dexcom.com/
Hypo Hounds is a diabetic alert assistance charity, helping children with type 1 diabetes by training assistance dogs to not only detect hypos, fetch testing kits or even bring a bottle of Lucozade, but helping children to live with more independence and freedom, and families to communicate better and feel less burdened by the challenges of type 1 diabetes.
The woman behind Hypo Hounds is today’s guest, Jane Pearman. Jane and her husband trained their first hypo dog, Scooby, to help their daughter Sophie after she was diagnosed with brittle type 1 diabetes as well as other major health complications at the age of 9. At the time Jane was checking Sophie’s blood sugars every hour through the night, feeling understandably frightened and exhausted.
They didn’t know it at the time, but Scooby would inspire the journey to founding Hypo Hounds, which has now trained 54 dogs to date, reducing hospital admissions and giving children and their families much-needed independence and relief from the burden of living with diabetes.
Thanks to the help of Scooby and her second Hypo Hound Dori, Sophie, now 22, lives independently and remains an incredible spokesperson for the charity. Heart-warming, emotional, inspiring - I couldn’t urge you to press play on this episode more!
CONNECT WITH HYPO HOUNDS:
Follow Hypo Hounds on Instagram.
Follow Hypo Hounds on Facebook.
Visit the Hypo Hounds website.
JOIN THE TYPE 1 ON 1 COMMUNITY:
We’ve got an Instagram account! Come and say hi @studiotype1on1.
SPONSOR MESSAGE:
Thanks to my episode sponsors Dexcom.
Pioneer and leader in Real-Time continuous glucose monitors, Dexcom's goal is to simplify and improve diabetes management for every possible person with diabetes.
They have a choice of systems, so you can find the right one for your lifestyle at https://www.dexcom.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode of Type one on one is kindly sponsored
by dex Com. More on that just a bit later.
What I will say now is that we have an
Instagram page dedicated specifically to this very podcast, So do
come and say hi and join our lovely community, share
your thoughts. You can find us at Studio type one
on one and you can find the link in the
(00:20):
episode description. Ah Hi everyone, and welcome to Type one
on one, a podcast that delves into the obscure, complex
and challenging world of life with type one diabetes. I'm
Jen Greeves, and each week, with the help of some
brilliant guests, I'll be showing that there is no normal
(00:41):
when it comes to handlink this whopper of a chronic condition,
because we're all pretty much figuring out the messiness of
day to day life with diabetes as we go, and
most of all, even though it doesn't always feel like it,
we are absolutely not alone. My guest today is Jane Pierman,
Founder and chief executive of hypo Hounds. Hypohounds is a
(01:03):
diabetic alert assistance charity helping children with type one diabetes
by training assistance dogs to not only detect hypos, but
to fetch testing kits or even a bottle of lucas aid.
Jane and her husband trained their first hypo dog, Scooby,
to help their daughter Sophie, after she was diagnosed with
brittle type one diabetes as well as other major health
complications at the age of nine. They didn't know it
(01:25):
at the time, but Scooby would inspire the journey to
founding Hypo Hounds, which has now trained fifty four dogs
to date, reducing hospital emissions and giving children and their
families much needed independence and relief from the burden of
living with type one diabetes. Hello, Jane, Welcome to Type
one on one.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Hi, lovely to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Thank you so.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Much for joining me. I mean that is just a
snapshot of the work you're doing, but it's so incredible
and I'm really looking forward to getting into this and
how you're helping children and families in this way because
it sort of speaks to the physical aspects but also
the emotional burden, right.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, very much. So. It's not only the clinical side,
but it's the mental wellbeing of everybody that is affected
by Type one in the family, from parents to also
grandparents and siblings as well. That we forget about.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, And how does it make you feel to know
having started you know, from that one dog that you trained,
to know that you're helping so many children and families,
as you say, they're wider families in this way.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Do you get a chance to reflect on that at all?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
No, I don't really have time. It's only when we
have like our big awards night once a year, and
it's all a big celebration of the children's success and
the family success that I actually sit back and go whool. Actually,
what we've created is something very very special and it's
a family feel.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yeah, how fantastic.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
I'm sure it's a lot of work, but ultimately hugely rewarding.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
I would like to start from the beginning, if that's okay,
because you have come such a long way and the
charity has expanded I'm sure in ways that you couldn't
have thought of back then. So do you mind telling
me a little bit about the very challenging experiences that
you went through yourself and with Sophie in the period
(03:20):
leading up to this idea?
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I mean Sophie was diagnosed at the age of nine
with type one diabetes, and like many children with type
one and adults. She has other health issues as well.
She had a bleed on the brain. She's born prematurely
and has got a VP shunt which puts her spinal
fluid around her brain for her mechanically, and also spina bivida.
(03:47):
And with Sophie, hypertreatment didn't really work and she would
go into a hypo with absolutely no warning. She would
have no fizzy legs, no shaking or anything. And for
us as parents, one minute we'd be in the kitchen,
we'd turn around and she'd be on the floor. And
for us, the fear was that, having had nine brain
(04:08):
operations already, if she hit her head, it would be well,
it just doesn't bear thinking about. So we started looking
into ways that we could help her because at that
particular time, the pumps and there was no libra or
anything like that. So we started having a bit of
a research really about how we could be proactive in
(04:31):
her care but also look after ourselves because at the
time I was a police officer, I was working twelve
hour shifts and then coming home, and I was a
career for her, and we were working one on one
off to facilitate that care for her. And I'll be
completely honest, I was burning out, and as a family,
(04:52):
we were burning out. So it was a case of, right,
we need to take the ball by the horns. It's
do or die and the pum. But it was a
case of we need to do something proactive otherwise, you know,
everything's just going to fall apart. So Hrby's a police
dog trainer and a friend of his, funny enough, sent
me a book about a little girl in America, and
(05:14):
obviously service dogs are huge out there. We are so
behind the times when it comes to animal assisted therapy
over in the UK. And I read the book and
I thought, do you know what I've got the leads,
I've got the contacts. We've got three police dogs at home. Anyway,
what's another one gonna So I set out on the
journey and picked up Scooby, a little Labrador puppy who
(05:38):
we just fell in love for his straight away, and
by the time he was twelve weeks old. He woke
us up in the middle of the night when Sophie
was going into a hypo and yeah, for us, it
was like, okay, this is big. But we had absolutely
no intention of starting a charity at all. It was
you know, we're looking after our daughter. We've done something proactive, brilliant.
(05:59):
You know, everything in life is starting to look a
little bit better. And a friend nominated him for the
Cruft's Friends for Life Award back in twenty sixteen, and
the publicity surrounding that, with the BBC and the filming,
we got inundated with parents just like us wanting to
(06:21):
do something proactive. Parents wanted to take the ball by
the horns and say, actually, I need to do something
for my child. So the seed was planted, shall we say,
of starting a charity. But let's say at the time,
I was a police officer and we just didn't have
the time that things happened for a reason, I was
(06:42):
involved in a very nasty road traffic accident and was
medically retired from the police, which was then another huge
light bulb moment. Actually I need to do something for
my own mental well being. I'm not one of these
people that would sort of sit on my laurels and
do nothing.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Was born Wow, I mean the sequence of events there,
you are so well placed to do this. But it's
one thing to be well placed, well positioned and with
the experience that you had, and another to take it
upon yourselves to do this work on behalf of more
than just yourselves. What was the motivation, what did sort
(07:22):
of make you decide, Okay, we're going to do this,
and what did you find in terms of the realities
of starting the charity.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah, it was difficult. It was really difficult. There's lots
of sort of legal loopholes you have to jump through.
We were very lucky we got the support from a
diabetic center who heard our story and supported me and
Sophie on the beginning of the journey of hyper hounds
and for which we will be eternally grateful to them for.
(07:52):
But for me it was I don't want any mum
or dad to go through the hell that I went through.
The clinical side, Sophie always got the amazing support, but
we were always forgotten and we didn't ever like to
ask for help, and it was really difficult. It was
(08:14):
really difficult because there are you get twenty minutes with
the DSN with the child. Maybe if you're lucky and
it's one in, one out, they focus on them, which
rightly so you know they should be focusing. But sometimes
the parents and the caregivers, husbands and wives of type
one diabetics are left on the outskirts. So for me
(08:35):
it was a I don't want anyone else to feel
how I ever felt.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah, thank you for articulating that. I can imagine that
so many parents are just completely with you in that,
just with the day to day of managing the condition
alongside all the other demands of life, let alone these
extra pressures and concerns and considerations that you were facing.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
What was that first.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Experience like when Scooby did come in and alert you,
And what was the relief like as he trained more
and as he became equipped to take some of that
weight from you.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
What was that like for you as a mother?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
It was like someone had may waved a magic wand
it really was. And there was a lot of people.
My own father was a bit like that, Oh, this
is a load of rubbish. And it wasn't until he
saw himself and it was like a light bulb moment
for many people. A lot of people even now go, oh,
dogs can't do that, But when they see it in action,
(09:40):
they see the children interacting with the dogs. A lot
of the children are quite shy, they don't want to
talk about things, but they will happily talk about their dog.
And they come out their shell. The interaction between the
dog and the child, the dog became the caregiver. So
for me it removed a huge amount of conflicts, especially
(10:01):
when Sophie went through those dreadful teenage stages when as
all Type one children, they go through it and rebel
and it's completely normal for them to do.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
It's completely normal.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
And you parents, you know, we are like hitting our
heads against the brick war. And no matter how many
times I'd ask her to test her bloods, you know,
I've got the kid in the teenager response, But if
Scooby asked her, it was totally different. So he became
the caregiver. I could be mum again. But more importantly,
he gave me the ability to be a mum again
(10:37):
to my son, who often got left out because he
always used to see because of Sophie's other health conditions.
I used to have to bribe her because she used
to have some really horrible tests done that were not
related to the Type one diabetes, and so he always
used to think, you know, which has been taken out
for the day. She's gone to TGI Friday, She's gone
to the Disney shop. He you know, that's what happens. Sadly,
(11:03):
there's only so much of you you can give that
Scooby did. He enabled me to be able to be
a mum again, a wife again, and be me give
me something, my identity back again.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
How absolutely priceless.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I would love to know a little bit about what
hypo hounds, what the hounds themselves do? You mentioned they're
asking Sophie to test her blood sugar. That took me
by surprise. It's like, I'm completely unawares of this, I'll admit,
So I'd love for you to describe for me. You know,
the lucas aide and all these things.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So all of the dogs that we have, they're all
diabetes for everyone is different, it's not in a book.
Everyone's unique, as you know, so everyone's ranges are going
to be different. But we all know that four are below.
It's a hypoe But a lot of our child clients
the actually want the warning to be early. So for example,
Scooby and now Dory, Sophie's alert is actually a five
(11:59):
point five because she's got brittle type one. She doesn't
want to collapse, so Scooby will do the alert. He
used to do the alert by doing a wolf, but
every dog is different and it's all tailored to the
individual needs of the family. So then being a teenager,
if he was to do a high five, Sophie could
(12:20):
push him away and I wouldn't know. But he wasn't
a barkie dog, so if he did one wolf, I
would automatically be like, something's gone on upstairs, what's going on?
Run up the stairs, and there he would be doing
a high five. Sometimes he would be dropping the kit
literally at her feet when she was on manual injections
to say come on, you need to do your bloods. Also,
(12:42):
she's now living independently. She's grown up now. She's twenty
two now and just bought her first house and the
dogs are trained, no scary. Her life's in Dorries pause
now literally, but Dory's alerts now. Sophie's in a school,
she's a teaching assistant, so she wants something that was
(13:03):
intrusive as a woof, So Dory, bless her heart. If
she was here now, if she was doing a lot,
you just see this head going. She does her jumping
up and it's only for when Sophie's going low, So
if she's on a zoom or she's teaching. If Dory
starts doing this almost at zebading, you know, the kids
are like, miss, you need to do your blood.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
That's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
I really like that idea of opening up conversations as well.
Has that been a part of what you've witnessed with
the children, with the people they come into contact with
with the dog, and even to raise awareness to people
outside of type of diabetes. You know, dogs at the
park interacting with their owner, their owners interacting with each other,
(13:48):
things like that.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Yeah, I mean we've had examples of children. One of
them was one of them went to a boot fair
in the summertime and there was a store with some
jam and someone said, oh, diabetic dog, you shouldn't be
but you shouldn't be eating this because you're diabetic. But
the little girl turn around and went, actually, I think
it's a little bit different to what you've maybe got
(14:09):
because my dog does this for me because I've got
type one right. And these kids are normally quite shy,
quite reserved, but they will talk about their dogs to anybody,
and they're really proud of them because they're their best friends.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Oh this is amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
I can't imagine what it's been like to go on
this journey. What are some of the more challenging aspects
of this in terms of, as you said, I think,
the perception of what a dog can do and saying
that that we're quite behind.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Versus the US.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
How has it been in terms of shifting mindsets that
this can help.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I mean, most of our funding comes from corporates, and
they find it really difficult to get their head around everything.
We can show videos, we can invite them into our
training center to actually watch the dogs in action, but
a lot of them are still very Oh no. We
went to the diabetic conference Olympia, the DPC and there
(15:07):
were many even healthcare professionals that were like, no, this
can't happen when we've got the data from our children
where some have had lots of hospital admissions before having
a dog, and actually how many of they had since
it's been placed with you none, how many of you
know how many missions? The proofs really in the pudding.
But yeah, it's it's been really difficult to try and
(15:29):
articulate how dogs can help children. And we can measure
the clinical side obviously with the data that we have,
but the one thing that everyone knows about is how
animals can improve mental well being. But that's the one
thing that we can't measure, and to be honest with you,
is just as important. It really is. But that's the
(15:52):
one side that the companies do come on board with
and say, actually, yeah, we can recognize that, but we
still can't get our heads around how good these dogs can.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
What is it that prevents people from being able to
take that leap of faith. It's not even faith, as
you say, you've got the evidence to back it up.
What do you think is that that disconnect?
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I think it's education. I think a lot of it.
A lot of the talks that we do, people are
still always putting type one in the same box as
type two, and we have to do a lot of
education talks in the community a lot of us. One
of the things that we work with them in the
past was fixing Dad, for example, with the type two
(16:35):
diabetes people. I think we are getting better as a
nation when it comes to animalistic therapy. But yeah, a
lot of people like the proof in the pudding.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Yeah understandably, But I mean.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
The police Dog Service is rightly very well regarded, a
very well respected. Yeah, it's interesting how this seems so different.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yeah, I think it's this science behind it all because
a lot of the clinicians are like, you know, what
are they smelling then? For example, so the studies that
were done over in America showed that there was a
higher increase in the chemical isoprene in your breath when
you go low. So everyone has got isoprene in their breath,
but a higher concentrate. So we know now that that's
(17:24):
the chemical that the dogs are picking up on, and
we target the training for that. When you do first
dai training, everyone talks about if you see someone that's
appearing drunk, if they smell a pair drops, then they
could be high. And obviously then we know that that's
what the dogs are picking up on. And the dogs
have got three hundred million scent receptors in their noses.
(17:46):
We've only got six really, we've got six million. Yeah,
and if we put that into Layman's terms, that's two
tea spoonfuls of sugar that a dog can smell in
an Olympic sized swimming So when we explain things in
that way to the general public, people are like, okay, yeah,
I can get it now. You know, we can train
(18:09):
dogs to find bombs, We can find them to train
narcotics and firearms and people and other diseases. When we
talk about the chemicals and say, you know, it's when
they do. Their noses are so good. There's no reason
why they can't detect this, and they are.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah, this is fascinating. Would you mind explaining to me,
as someone who admittedly also isn't so aware, what brittle
type one is and how specifically it differs to type
one diabetes.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah, so brittle type one is different to normal type one,
where there's no such thing as an amal type one
because everyone's so different, aren' they right? But brittle type
one is where they have absolutely no awareness at all.
They don't get the fizzy legs, the tingling of the fingers.
(19:02):
Some say that their jaws ache, don't they They get nothing.
So it is literally collapsed on a monthly basis.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Wow, And I can imagine, as you say, before the
tech came into the picture, which is very recent in
relative terms, this for you was constant, vigilant this night
and day.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I was absolutely petrified.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
I was.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
You know, I'll hand on heart your dear sens will say,
you know, you don't have to look after them during
the night, you know, if they're going to hypo it
all sort of cells out. I wasn't prepared to take
that risk, and I know many other parents feel the
same way as me. You know, it's almost like, not
on my watch, this isn't going to happen, so you
do you know, I was testing Sophie's bloods every hour
(19:46):
of the night, to the point where I had a
bed in her bedroom. And yeah, that's it's not healthy.
It's not healthy. Albeit, our dogs don't work of a
nighttime because they're not nocturnal. Just that peace of mind
working on alongside the tech that if the tech beeps
and you might sleep through it, that will wake the
dog up. So it's working together with the tech. Really.
(20:09):
You know, during the day, we've got a lot of
our dogs are beating them by fifteen minutes.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Oh really interesting.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
So how has that evolved as the access to the
tech has evolved and become more available. How has the
work that the dogs are doing evolved to kind of,
as you say, work alongside this technology.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, we're never going to replace technology, but we like
working alongside Freestyle and dex Calm. We've got a really
lovely relationship with them. You can't cudd all your pump.
You can't. You can put funky stickers on it, you
could name it something, but I'm sorry, you can't cuddle it.
(20:50):
And there are days when technology does go wrong. Yeah,
you do get your kinked canulas, you do get the
leapers falling off. The dogs work alongside as a complete
holistic package, if you like, for the whole family of
diabetic care. So technology is going to evolve, but there's
(21:11):
always going to be a space for a hyper hoound
in a child's life.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I think, yeah, absolutely, And what have you witnessed? Can
you talk to me about some of the early memories
in terms of seeing that in front of your eyes,
how a hyperhound kind of bridges these very difficult things
that you're facing day to day, and not only the
condition itself, but how you communicate that with their family.
Us as people living with typewanders, don't always want to
(21:38):
talk about it. And you know, when it comes to children,
you just want to be normal and go out and
play and things like that. So what have you witnessed
in terms of the dog being that kind of that
glue and also that bridge to facilitate more conversation, more love,
more joy ultimately, and more freedom for a child and
their family.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
That's right. And inclusivity. For example, we've had a lot
of childre that weren't able to take part in after
school activities because the parents may have been working. Sophie
used to get excluded from things because clubs didn't want
to take on the responsibility. With scoobye they could. She
(22:18):
used to do trampolining and Scooby used to sit at
the side. The coach knew, he roofs there's a problem,
and it worked perfectly. We've got little Thomas with Poppy.
He's currently being scouted by football clubs. Bless him. He's
only five or six. He's absolutely amazing, but you'll be
playing football. And before he would have to miss out
(22:39):
on the whole session because his bloods would drop and
he's almost resistant to his high po treatment and it
would take a good half hour for his bloods to
come up, which meant that he would miss out on
the whole coaching session. But now little Poppy does the alert.
He runs by, Mum shoves and jelly babies in and
(22:59):
he's off because he's actually not gone low because Poppy's
caught it at that rage where he's just starting so
Mom just stops him up and away he goes.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
And there is such a difference as someone living with
type one between catching that hypo and being in the
depths of it and having to wait to come back
up like that, you know. And I don't really have
symptoms anymore, but in terms of my capabilities to think
or or you know, move forward, I think that that
(23:30):
does have a ramification.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
There is a big consequence.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
So for a doult to be able to catch that
before it gets to that point that.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
That must be incredible.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
And specifically in the situation where a child is doing
the thing that they're skilled at, that they enjoy, that
brings them, you know, life and light, that is wonderful.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Exactly, and they should be doing sport if that's what
they want to do. You know, there's no reason why
children with type one diabetes shouldn't be doing sport.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, how did you navigate those conversations? How have you
found coaches and and teachers and other caregivers in terms
of having these discussions around what Sophie previously as a child,
you know, was able to do, and how did you
find that?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, I mean I've got I've made some absolutely amazing
friends because of it, and an amazing support network, and
a lot of them will come on board as coaching
and life coaching now for parents because of using Sophie,
if you like, as a guinea pig to get children
into sport. But yeah, I was very lucky. Sophie had
(24:33):
a one to one in school, so we were really
really blessed with that and absolutely amazing. But it was
the after school clubs that I struggled with. But yeah,
once I found someone that was willing to take it
on and actually have a conversation, you know that this
is what Sophie's got, because obviously she does have other
problems as well. It was almost like, oh, my goodness,
(24:58):
the world is our oyster. She got graded as a
para horse rider and she took part in the Raw
Windsor horse Show three years ago and actually won it,
you know, and that was you know, horse riding things
would have been a big no no. But now that
opened up another world to us because her coach bred
(25:20):
a litter of labradors and became a breeder for us
because they were so impressed of what our work was.
So things happen for a reason. And you know, whenever
things go down for us, I'm a big believer in
you know, there's always there's another door that's going to open,
and it has for us as charity. Whenether something's knocked
us down or Sophie's done, I can't do that, another
(25:43):
door's opened with an even better opportunity.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Wonderful And how has it been for you as mama
as Sophie's gained more independence and has gone on to
achieve these incredible things. And now, as you say, living independently,
she's got her career, Like, what's that been like for
you to witness? I know obviously happens slowly, slowly over
the years, but going from that time, which was understandably
(26:09):
terrifying and exhausting for you, talk to me a little
bit about her and also giving her that independence as well,
it was really hard.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
We've got a lot of our clients now that our
children are going to be going off to college or university,
and yeah, it was really difficult for me. I don't
think I would have felt as positive that as I
did if it hadn't been for Scoopy and now Dory,
(26:38):
because I know that she's okay, she's got someone watching
her back and taken on the role as a mum.
She's got a very understanding boyfriend as well, who's absolutely amazing,
which is fabulous. But yeah, I think without having a dog,
I don't think i'd be having this conversation. I think
we'd be having huge arguments still at home. But I'm very,
(27:03):
very proud, very proud of everything that she's achieved. Yeah,
she's a fabulous ambassador for the charity and for the children.
She still gets involved with the charity and when we
have away days, she gets involved with the kids and
they look up to her now as a bit of
a role model to say, actually, if she can do it,
we can do.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
This episode of Type one on one is sponsored by
dex COOM. As many of you know, I've been using
the Dexcom Continuous Glucose Monitor for years and it's hard
for me to express how much of a difference it's
made to my life. Their CGM sensors give me the
confidence to make informed treatment decisions in the moment, which
is important to me as I'm often running around and
(27:46):
with just a quick glance, I know where my glucose
levels are at, where they're heading, and where they've been
so please take a look at dexcom dot com. They
have a choice of systems so you can find the
right one for your lifestyle. Can you talk to me
a little bit about the process of training a dog
and what that's like, how long it takes.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Yeah, so we've changed the first When we first started
the charity up, it was all about your dog saving
your child's life. But very quickly I realized that not
everyone was like me. A lot of people do struggle,
or bit I struggle, but it depends on your makeup,
(28:26):
if you like, of whether you're someone that is capable
of sort of getting up and doing things, or whether
you're a person that would actually rather just deal with
your own little bubble. And although the dogs were really
good at doing everything, the parents just couldn't commit to
the training. So just before lockdown, as you do, we
(28:49):
changed the whole setup of the charity and we became
very much like what Guide Dogs do, where we source
the puppies, we own the dogs and they're raised by
puppy walkers for the first year, which mitigates a lot
of the training that the parents have to do. By
the time the puppies about one years old, we start
(29:12):
to look at what families we've got on our books
and what lifestyle would suit that particular dog. Because dogs
do they have their own character. You know what they
like and what they don't like, and there's no point
matching a high drive dog with a low drive family.
So by the time they're about one, we start matching them.
That's when the children come to us with playdates, so
(29:34):
the dog gets to use to them in a nice,
safe environment and the children aren't then strangers and either
other family. After they've met a few times and they've
come on a few training sessions, that's when we book
a sleepover, so the dog goes for a sleepover with
the children to make sure that the dog can settle
(29:55):
in the house. And when they've had two sleepovers, that's
when we sit down with a family and say, right,
is it the one for you? And by two sleepovers,
we all know whether or not the dogs settling nicely,
if there's any habits the dogs have or even the
children might have that the dogs don't like, and vice versa.
It's mutually. It's not just one way from the charity's
(30:18):
point of view, it's all about dog welfare and is
it the right family for the dog, but also we
have to speak to the parents because we have had
where parents have gone. Actually we love the dog, the
kids love it, but it's not the right one for us,
in which case we have to reassess things. Sometimes a
year might have gone by because it takes a long
(30:39):
time to train these dogs, that particular child's needs might
have now been superseded by another child's needs, so they
might actually go to the bottom of the queue. But
there's always a space for everyone. But we're not diabetic
or medical specialists at all, so we go by the
clinical teams. So when people are on our books, they
have an annual review of their diabetes to make it
(31:01):
fair for everyone that's applying.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
And what's the criteria for being able to work with
a hyper hand or obtain a hyperhound.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
So for us, it is based on hospital admissions, it's
based on how many hypos the child's having. It is
a working dog, So if someone says to us, oh,
they only have two hypos a month, it's not really
worth us training a dog to the tune of twenty
five pounds for a dog that might only be worked
when there could be a family out there that's a
(31:33):
child even now Sophie has a good six to seven
hyh pos a day, so you know, that's our ideal
client if you like, any children under the age of five,
because they automatically don't have any awareness being so tiny,
they do get priority with us. And we've got a
(31:55):
few babies on our list at the moment, which is
is absolutely heartbreaking, but knowing that we might be able
to help them and then then grow up and we
put them in good stead with their diabetic care so
when they do get to that all forteen age stage,
hopefully they might not rebel as much.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
And how does it work?
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Is there any connection between the charity and the dog
and the child's diabetic care team.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Yeah, so we were really closely with them. Yeah, so
we obviously get the medical forms signed by them. We're
also really blessed to have as one of our trustees
of diabetic specialist nurse, so if we've got any queries
on applications or maybe something's come up, if they can't
get in contact with their diabetic specialist nurs we've got
one on board, which is absolutely amazing. And her spostiality
(32:49):
at the moment is dealing with mental well being as well,
so she's a huge advocate for mental well being and
the use of dogs to help mitigate that within the
family setting.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Incredible, And what's the.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Common challenge or difficulty that children and their families are
facing that come to you with sort of in light
of having the technology?
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Now?
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Is it the lack of symptoms, is it the emotional load?
A combination of things, I'm sure, but what is the
thing that you see?
Speaker 2 (33:24):
It is mainly the parents not having faith in the
technology that is the one thing that we have. There's
one awful of scare stories out there, as everybody knows,
you know, things do go wrong sometimes, but also you know,
they also have a place. Sophie's life changed dramatically when
(33:45):
she went onto a pump, but also when she goes
on holiday she prefers to have some time away from
the pump as well. So, yeah, I think it's a
complete lack of faith, and I think sometimes it's the
edge cation around the technology as well. The parents don't
feel that they've had the support and they don't understand
(34:07):
it fully. Yeah, for us, that's a huge sort of
problem and that's something that hopefully we're going to be
working with some of the big companies to do and
put some support sessions in place for not only our clients,
but for the in the broader scheme of things we
do welfare Wednesdays and which we open up to everybody.
(34:29):
We're starting again in January, so if people want to
come on board and each week is a different topic,
we have a specialist in each week and it's open
to everyone. Just sometimes just have a little bit of
a rent and talk to people that understand.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
And what's the biggest challenge for you as the founder
sort of taking on this work and you know you
hear a lot about these challenges. What do you find
the hardest that you want to do more, that you
want to reach more people, or just the workload. Kind
of talk to me about as a charity.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Found out what you find I find really difficult is
I want to save the world. Yeah, every parent comes
to me. I want to help, but there are those
that we can't. Maybe it's because of their lifestyle, maybe
it's just you know, the dynamics within the family. I
(35:23):
find it really difficult to say no. And I find
it really difficult to switch off as well and not
get emotionally involved. I'm a sucker for a SOB story
because I've been there and I understand how difficult it is.
But then you do, unfortunately, get people taken advantage of that,
(35:44):
which we've had quite a few times. And you know,
there are times when we've had to say right enough, no,
we can't do this anymore. And I find that really difficult.
And I think when people are on a journey with us,
it's all very well then you're going through the applications,
but when we say actually we can't because of this,
people find rejection really difficult because they've been rejected a
(36:07):
lot of times with all their support systems, and we're
just another a door that's closing where we have to
sometimes be very open and say we can only do
what we can do because we're a charity and we're
very small and we've got very limited funds. You know,
it would be lovely, you know, my dream would be
for any child with a prittle type one if they
(36:30):
came to us, to have a dog, But sadly life
isn't like that, and we do we prioritize it on
clinical need, so it is very black and white, but
it has to be that way.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Yeah, And I mean the work you have done and
the people you have to helped. That's that's absolutely incredible.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, we've had people saying, no, I'll write you out
of check tomorrow if my child can have one of
your dogs, and it's like, well, first of all, it
doesn't sit very well with me ethically, but also there's
a charity we can't do that, and it might be
lovely for your child to have a dog, but actually
there's a child X for example, over here that needs
one more than yours. So yeah, it's difficult, it really is.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
And with that in mind, what's your sort of plans
for the charity going forward and what help would be
useful for you moving forward?
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yeah, I think the people going out and talking about
us that would really help. We're going into the world
of corporate funding. At the moment. We don't ask, we
don't charge the families for what we do. They take
on the insurance and the food and the venory care
of the dogs once they've matched, but we don't charge
them the twenty five pounds for the training of the
(37:43):
dog and the ongoing training because obviously diabetes changes. So
you know, we might give a dog to an eight
year old, but in five years time, we've got to
get that dog back in, so we see the dog
four times a year and license it so that we're
constantly on it. If there's any changes with the blood
sugar levels, maybe the ratios need to be changed, whe're
on it that. Yeah, we need people to go out
(38:04):
and talk about us. We need people to go and
talk about how amazing the dogs are. You never know
there might be someone out there with a million pounds
that might go to know what have somebody and then
you can train more dogs for more children.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Is there a time where you bring the families together
at all?
Speaker 3 (38:23):
I know you mentioned the awards.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
So we do. Yeah, we haven't done it this year,
but we try and do a day where we take
the children out for the day and we have a
sibling day, so we take the children and their siblings out,
the parents have a psychology session, which is really nice.
That's one thing that I think makes us kind of
special because the parents have some downtime to speak to
a specialist. And the last one that we had we
(38:47):
took the children on the steam train and it was
twenty children, twenty dogs on a steam train. It was carnage.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
In the best possible way.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
They say, don't work with children and animals. But my goodness,
that was at day to remember. But yeah, that the
parents actually sat down and for some of our clients
actually turn around and said, you know, that's the first
time we've actually sat down as a couple and discussed
how we feel about it because a lot of the time,
you know, stereotypically or not, the mother kind of takes
(39:22):
on the nurturing role. And there was an awful lot
of resentment in the room from the feedback afterwards, because
you know, the mums were saying, you're not getting involved,
why aren't you getting involved? But the feedback came back
with the dads were really scared and messing up and
then that impacting negatively on their marriage. But it was
never being communicated between the two of them. You know,
(39:45):
the dads weren't talking to the mums, and mums weren't talking.
They were thinking, oh, you're just leaving me to it.
I'm exhausted. But the dads were actually scared. And you know,
those sessions, you know, are huge for us. So that
was one. We're hopefull you do another one next year.
But yeah, we have our bigger wards night as well.
Once a year. We took our families on a trip
(40:08):
to Hogwarts this year, and it was all done like
Hogwarts and it's a celebration of success of the team.
So we had the most improved dog, who's done the
most fundraising, who's the volunteer of the year. It's all
a bit of fun, but yeah, we took them on
an Amasian journey. Each year. It's a different theme. So
(40:29):
it's lovely for them because they actually sit with the
foster parents of the dog that brought up their dog
for them, So it was lovely for them to come
and sit meet the dog, meet their families. So we
really are something quite special because it is a huge family.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
Yeah, it really speaks to community.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
And as you spoke about the parents there, that like
completely is what I've heard from the parents of children
with type one that I've interviewed for the podcast.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
How the day to.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Day of it and the demand of it. It really
shifts the dynamic of a couple, of the whole family.
But finding the space and the courage because it's not
easy to converse about feelings around this condition that isn't yours,
but it is such a big part of your life
and impactually so hugely for you to facilitate that space,
(41:22):
you know, as well as the dogs and the children
and all of that. I think, yeah, as you describe
so precious. But what I'm sensing here is this community
which in my experience and where any of the speaking
I've done about Type one has come from, is that
there was a long time where I felt like it
was just me, and you alluded to that earlier in
yourself and what you were going through that it was
(41:43):
just you, and I sensed that this must be a
very strong bond that you will share like everyone that's
involved in the charity.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
I think even conversations now are going on with other
people at our chairman John that you've you've had a
chat with his Type one diabetic and when he came
on board as a trustee, he went back to his
mother and so, Mum, did you feel the way that
Jane felt? Because I didn't, and she went yes, but
I never told you. So there's conversations that are happening
(42:17):
as adult Type ones with their parents, and you know,
it is a grieving process. You grieve for the child
that especially you know Sophie was nine, so she was
a little bit later. You a grieve for the child
that you had before, and you need to be able
to process that. And especially you know, John's obviously a
(42:38):
lot older than Sophie. You know that his parents were
of the mindset of something we don't ever talk about
feelings and things like that. So you know, even him
having conversation now with his parents, did you feel that way?
Speaker 3 (42:50):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (42:50):
I did, and actually I still do.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Yeah, And John is the reason we're speaking. He has
mentioned a little bit of his story to me and
said that he didn't speak about his type one diabetes
at all for thirty five years until he found Hypoverhounds and.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
Started to work with you guys. So yeah, absolutely incredible.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
We have like buddies. You know that our children have buddies,
they have little mentors, they have little clubs, and you
know it's so important. You know, everyone talks about mental
health and talking. We don't talk enough about type one diabetes,
and we don't encourage our children to be the brave
warriors that they are and be proud of it and
(43:34):
say I've got this and I'm not ashamed of it.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
It's me absolutely, And for those who are listening and
are no doubt inspired to find out more, how can
people support the work you're doing. Like, what are different
ways that people can get involved?
Speaker 2 (43:50):
Yeap. Obviously you can sponsor a dog. You can go
to the website and sponsor a dog. What we really
need at the moment is more of volunteers. So we're
open hubs up all over the country. We can only
open them if we've got a team of volunteers. So
if for example, we've got hubs in Hampshire, Berkshire, Reading
(44:11):
Ssex or six Surrey. We've even got one in Northern
Ireland now. But if there was a group of people
that could get together and then do the village fates
become a talk for us, go into communities, talk at
your local WI, raise awareness. Not only are they raising
awareness of the charity, but they're also reaching out possibly
(44:32):
to that one family that might benefit from us, and
also maybe a funder which would be really nice too.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
And what's been your proudest moment if you have one?
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Oh god, there's too many's, there's too many. But I
think for us at the moment, we've we've just won
the Mental well Being Awards for Kent for being Mental
well Being Champions. So for a charity that actually didn't
start out as mental well being. It was about this
istant dog and the clinical need to actually be formally
recognized by the Lord Lieutenant of Kent and we were
(45:06):
crowned champions in the whole of Kent for mental health
services for children. That was huge. But we've also just
found out we have a finalist for the BQF Awards
up at Wembley Arena next year and that is huge.
Robber gets some huge businesses for doing amazing things with
amazing people. So yeah, but every dog that doesn't alert,
(45:30):
you know, every time we get a phone call said
do you know what the dog's done this today? It
still gives me goosebumps.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Now, yeah, absolutely, I love this so much. Have you
found that as you're entering, you know, awards and things
and speaking to people outside of diabetes communities, what's the
reaction when you tell people what the charity is and
what it does and how it helps people. What's the
kind of response you get from people who live outside
of the type one diabetes bubble.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
A lot of people didn't even know about type one
and children, they and they and they hold their hands
up because you hear about you always hear about diabetes
on news. They never specify classified type one. So it's
all about education, but that they are blown away, especially
if we take a puppy with us.
Speaker 3 (46:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Absolutely. I can imagine if I do like a networking
event and I take a puppy, My goodness, everyone wants.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
A very good way to pk interest. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
I can imagine. You don't want to know about the
type dibetes by here's the.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Dog you're going to learn. But it's getting them, you know,
because of the puppies. We're then being invited to go
into the workplace. So we've got a lot of companies
that sponsor our work, but not because of the link
to type one. They want a dog in their workplace
to improve productivity and improve the mental well being. It
(46:54):
helps us with the socialization of our dogs. So it's
kind of a winner winner. Really love that.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
And what makes a good hypohound if there is such
a thing, as you know, does it differ?
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Yeah. I mean we're often talked about what breeds are
best as well, So if I can put it in
layman terms for you, your Springer Spaniel is your Ferrari
of the scent detection world. They are amazing. However, they
don't slow down your labrador is your reliable for Mondeo.
(47:29):
It's cheap to run. Love this family friendly and everyone
loves them nice and comfortable, So yeah, it is your labradors.
We want nice, steady, family friendly dogs that are well socialized,
behave impeccably. We don't want them to be bobots. You know,
(47:50):
they are allowed to be naughty. You know, when they're
not on duty, they can go and roll in fox poo,
they can do whatever they like. But the minute they
put that uniform on, they represented the charity and they know,
and you can see by the whole body language of
the dogs. They walk around like this with their uniforms on,
looking all proud, almost looking at the other dogs to say,
do you know what I'm allowed to go in that restaurant?
(48:11):
You're not?
Speaker 3 (48:13):
Oh my gosh, wow.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
And tell me about the joy that you personally get
from interacting with these dogs, having these dogs in your
life after retiring and you know, very sudden circumstances. Speak
to me a bit about about your feelings about about that.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
I'm a huge dog lover anyway, So yeah, yeah, puppy
days in the office. Now I'm in Norfolk. If I
know that puppies are going to be in the office.
I'm down there, I'm pulling rank. All the dogs are
named after Disney characters as well, so we have a
pool breeders that. Yeah, we've got a Star Wars litter
(48:52):
for example, So we've got a little black labrador called Vader.
We've got an Obi Wan, Canobia, Yoda, Luke, and and
then I've got another breeder who is our Lion Kings.
We've got a Simbranala, Pumbur and Timone. So yeah, it's
all a bit of fun, very serious, but it's all
a bit of fun. But yeah, I absolutely love it.
(49:14):
I'm living the dream. The only horrible thing is, you know,
when we have to say no sometimes. But other than that,
I really am you know, it's it's a lovely job,
it really is, and very proud of it.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
John told me you were incredible. That was his first sentence,
and I please, he's not wrong. And how about your husband,
what does he make of all this? And how involved
is Yeah he's.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
Still he's still working in the police, so he's he's
busy with that. But yeah he's very very proud, Yeah,
very proud. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
And where can people find you if they want to say? Hello,
or maybe ask some questions about hyper Hounds.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
We're on all our socials. We've got Instagram, hyper Hounds,
We're on Facebook. I know that's a bit archaic now
for some people. Yeah, hopefully we're I think we're going
to be starting in the realms of TikTok because someone said,
you know, it'd be really lovely to see like the
naughty side of the puppies.
Speaker 3 (50:07):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Yeah, that'd be huge. But yeap our website hyperhounds dot
co dot uk. There's lots of information on there and
how you can become involved as a volunteer, download a
pack or even if you think that we might be
able to help you, the application forms are on there too.
We're also at loads of events through the year. Come
a visit. They're always on our socials where we're going
(50:29):
to be. Come down supporter us, come and meet the team,
come and play with the puppies, come and meet us.
Speaker 3 (50:37):
Lovely.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Yeah, I really like the in personness of this, because
you know, online communities are amazing, but the presence of
a dog and seeing those families come together, I think
it's something really special from what you've said, so I
cannot thank you enough.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
For talking to me.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
Thanks you're in the midst of our house move and
many other things, but thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
No, thank you.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
I hope you enjoyed this episode of Type one on one.
Speaker 3 (51:04):
Please remember that.
Speaker 1 (51:05):
Nothing you hear on this podcast should be taken as
medical advice. I'm definitely not a healthcare professional. If you
like what you hear, hit subscribe and do leave a
little review on iTunes if you have time. It really
helps to spread the word about type one diabetes. And
thank you so much for listening.
This episode of Type one on one is kindly sponsored
by dex Com. More on that just a bit later.
What I will say now is that we have an
Instagram page dedicated specifically to this very podcast, So do
come and say hi and join our lovely community, share
your thoughts. You can find us at Studio type one
on one and you can find the link in the
(00:20):
episode description. Ah Hi everyone, and welcome to Type one
on one, a podcast that delves into the obscure, complex
and challenging world of life with type one diabetes. I'm
Jen Greeves, and each week, with the help of some
brilliant guests, I'll be showing that there is no normal
(00:41):
when it comes to handlink this whopper of a chronic condition,
because we're all pretty much figuring out the messiness of
day to day life with diabetes as we go, and
most of all, even though it doesn't always feel like it,
we are absolutely not alone. My guest today is Jane Pierman,
Founder and chief executive of hypo Hounds. Hypohounds is a
(01:03):
diabetic alert assistance charity helping children with type one diabetes
by training assistance dogs to not only detect hypos, but
to fetch testing kits or even a bottle of lucas aid.
Jane and her husband trained their first hypo dog, Scooby,
to help their daughter Sophie, after she was diagnosed with
brittle type one diabetes as well as other major health
complications at the age of nine. They didn't know it
(01:25):
at the time, but Scooby would inspire the journey to
founding Hypo Hounds, which has now trained fifty four dogs
to date, reducing hospital emissions and giving children and their
families much needed independence and relief from the burden of
living with type one diabetes. Hello, Jane, Welcome to Type
one on one.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Hi, lovely to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Thank you so.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Much for joining me. I mean that is just a
snapshot of the work you're doing, but it's so incredible
and I'm really looking forward to getting into this and
how you're helping children and families in this way because
it sort of speaks to the physical aspects but also
the emotional burden, right.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, very much. So. It's not only the clinical side,
but it's the mental wellbeing of everybody that is affected
by Type one in the family, from parents to also
grandparents and siblings as well. That we forget about.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, And how does it make you feel to know
having started you know, from that one dog that you trained,
to know that you're helping so many children and families,
as you say, they're wider families in this way.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Do you get a chance to reflect on that at all?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
No, I don't really have time. It's only when we
have like our big awards night once a year, and
it's all a big celebration of the children's success and
the family success that I actually sit back and go whool. Actually,
what we've created is something very very special and it's
a family feel.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yeah, how fantastic.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
I'm sure it's a lot of work, but ultimately hugely rewarding.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
I would like to start from the beginning, if that's okay,
because you have come such a long way and the
charity has expanded I'm sure in ways that you couldn't
have thought of back then. So do you mind telling
me a little bit about the very challenging experiences that
you went through yourself and with Sophie in the period
(03:20):
leading up to this idea?
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I mean Sophie was diagnosed at the age of nine
with type one diabetes, and like many children with type
one and adults. She has other health issues as well.
She had a bleed on the brain. She's born prematurely
and has got a VP shunt which puts her spinal
fluid around her brain for her mechanically, and also spina bivida.
(03:47):
And with Sophie, hypertreatment didn't really work and she would
go into a hypo with absolutely no warning. She would
have no fizzy legs, no shaking or anything. And for
us as parents, one minute we'd be in the kitchen,
we'd turn around and she'd be on the floor. And
for us, the fear was that, having had nine brain
(04:08):
operations already, if she hit her head, it would be well,
it just doesn't bear thinking about. So we started looking
into ways that we could help her because at that
particular time, the pumps and there was no libra or
anything like that. So we started having a bit of
a research really about how we could be proactive in
(04:31):
her care but also look after ourselves because at the
time I was a police officer, I was working twelve
hour shifts and then coming home, and I was a
career for her, and we were working one on one
off to facilitate that care for her. And I'll be
completely honest, I was burning out, and as a family,
(04:52):
we were burning out. So it was a case of, right,
we need to take the ball by the horns. It's
do or die and the pum. But it was a
case of we need to do something proactive otherwise, you know,
everything's just going to fall apart. So Hrby's a police
dog trainer and a friend of his, funny enough, sent
me a book about a little girl in America, and
(05:14):
obviously service dogs are huge out there. We are so
behind the times when it comes to animal assisted therapy
over in the UK. And I read the book and
I thought, do you know what I've got the leads,
I've got the contacts. We've got three police dogs at home. Anyway,
what's another one gonna So I set out on the
journey and picked up Scooby, a little Labrador puppy who
(05:38):
we just fell in love for his straight away, and
by the time he was twelve weeks old. He woke
us up in the middle of the night when Sophie
was going into a hypo and yeah, for us, it
was like, okay, this is big. But we had absolutely
no intention of starting a charity at all. It was
you know, we're looking after our daughter. We've done something proactive, brilliant.
(05:59):
You know, everything in life is starting to look a
little bit better. And a friend nominated him for the
Cruft's Friends for Life Award back in twenty sixteen, and
the publicity surrounding that, with the BBC and the filming,
we got inundated with parents just like us wanting to
(06:21):
do something proactive. Parents wanted to take the ball by
the horns and say, actually, I need to do something
for my child. So the seed was planted, shall we say,
of starting a charity. But let's say at the time,
I was a police officer and we just didn't have
the time that things happened for a reason, I was
(06:42):
involved in a very nasty road traffic accident and was
medically retired from the police, which was then another huge
light bulb moment. Actually I need to do something for
my own mental well being. I'm not one of these
people that would sort of sit on my laurels and
do nothing.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Was born Wow, I mean the sequence of events there,
you are so well placed to do this. But it's
one thing to be well placed, well positioned and with
the experience that you had, and another to take it
upon yourselves to do this work on behalf of more
than just yourselves. What was the motivation, what did sort
(07:22):
of make you decide, Okay, we're going to do this,
and what did you find in terms of the realities
of starting the charity.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah, it was difficult. It was really difficult. There's lots
of sort of legal loopholes you have to jump through.
We were very lucky we got the support from a
diabetic center who heard our story and supported me and
Sophie on the beginning of the journey of hyper hounds
and for which we will be eternally grateful to them for.
(07:52):
But for me it was I don't want any mum
or dad to go through the hell that I went through.
The clinical side, Sophie always got the amazing support, but
we were always forgotten and we didn't ever like to
ask for help, and it was really difficult. It was
(08:14):
really difficult because there are you get twenty minutes with
the DSN with the child. Maybe if you're lucky and
it's one in, one out, they focus on them, which
rightly so you know they should be focusing. But sometimes
the parents and the caregivers, husbands and wives of type
one diabetics are left on the outskirts. So for me
(08:35):
it was a I don't want anyone else to feel
how I ever felt.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah, thank you for articulating that. I can imagine that
so many parents are just completely with you in that,
just with the day to day of managing the condition
alongside all the other demands of life, let alone these
extra pressures and concerns and considerations that you were facing.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
What was that first.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Experience like when Scooby did come in and alert you,
And what was the relief like as he trained more
and as he became equipped to take some of that
weight from you.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
What was that like for you as a mother?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
It was like someone had may waved a magic wand
it really was. And there was a lot of people.
My own father was a bit like that, Oh, this
is a load of rubbish. And it wasn't until he
saw himself and it was like a light bulb moment
for many people. A lot of people even now go, oh,
dogs can't do that, But when they see it in action,
(09:40):
they see the children interacting with the dogs. A lot
of the children are quite shy, they don't want to
talk about things, but they will happily talk about their dog.
And they come out their shell. The interaction between the
dog and the child, the dog became the caregiver. So
for me it removed a huge amount of conflicts, especially
(10:01):
when Sophie went through those dreadful teenage stages when as
all Type one children, they go through it and rebel
and it's completely normal for them to do.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
It's completely normal.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
And you parents, you know, we are like hitting our
heads against the brick war. And no matter how many
times I'd ask her to test her bloods, you know,
I've got the kid in the teenager response, But if
Scooby asked her, it was totally different. So he became
the caregiver. I could be mum again. But more importantly,
he gave me the ability to be a mum again
(10:37):
to my son, who often got left out because he
always used to see because of Sophie's other health conditions.
I used to have to bribe her because she used
to have some really horrible tests done that were not
related to the Type one diabetes, and so he always
used to think, you know, which has been taken out
for the day. She's gone to TGI Friday, She's gone
to the Disney shop. He you know, that's what happens. Sadly,
(11:03):
there's only so much of you you can give that
Scooby did. He enabled me to be able to be
a mum again, a wife again, and be me give
me something, my identity back again.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
How absolutely priceless.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I would love to know a little bit about what
hypo hounds, what the hounds themselves do? You mentioned they're
asking Sophie to test her blood sugar. That took me
by surprise. It's like, I'm completely unawares of this, I'll admit,
So I'd love for you to describe for me. You know,
the lucas aide and all these things.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So all of the dogs that we have, they're all
diabetes for everyone is different, it's not in a book.
Everyone's unique, as you know, so everyone's ranges are going
to be different. But we all know that four are below.
It's a hypoe But a lot of our child clients
the actually want the warning to be early. So for example,
Scooby and now Dory, Sophie's alert is actually a five
(11:59):
point five because she's got brittle type one. She doesn't
want to collapse, so Scooby will do the alert. He
used to do the alert by doing a wolf, but
every dog is different and it's all tailored to the
individual needs of the family. So then being a teenager,
if he was to do a high five, Sophie could
(12:20):
push him away and I wouldn't know. But he wasn't
a barkie dog, so if he did one wolf, I
would automatically be like, something's gone on upstairs, what's going on?
Run up the stairs, and there he would be doing
a high five. Sometimes he would be dropping the kit
literally at her feet when she was on manual injections
to say come on, you need to do your bloods. Also,
(12:42):
she's now living independently. She's grown up now. She's twenty
two now and just bought her first house and the
dogs are trained, no scary. Her life's in Dorries pause
now literally, but Dory's alerts now. Sophie's in a school,
she's a teaching assistant, so she wants something that was
(13:03):
intrusive as a woof, So Dory, bless her heart. If
she was here now, if she was doing a lot,
you just see this head going. She does her jumping
up and it's only for when Sophie's going low, So
if she's on a zoom or she's teaching. If Dory
starts doing this almost at zebading, you know, the kids
are like, miss, you need to do your blood.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
That's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
I really like that idea of opening up conversations as well.
Has that been a part of what you've witnessed with
the children, with the people they come into contact with
with the dog, and even to raise awareness to people
outside of type of diabetes. You know, dogs at the
park interacting with their owner, their owners interacting with each other,
(13:48):
things like that.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Yeah, I mean we've had examples of children. One of
them was one of them went to a boot fair
in the summertime and there was a store with some
jam and someone said, oh, diabetic dog, you shouldn't be
but you shouldn't be eating this because you're diabetic. But
the little girl turn around and went, actually, I think
it's a little bit different to what you've maybe got
(14:09):
because my dog does this for me because I've got
type one right. And these kids are normally quite shy,
quite reserved, but they will talk about their dogs to anybody,
and they're really proud of them because they're their best friends.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Oh this is amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
I can't imagine what it's been like to go on
this journey. What are some of the more challenging aspects
of this in terms of, as you said, I think,
the perception of what a dog can do and saying
that that we're quite behind.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Versus the US.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
How has it been in terms of shifting mindsets that
this can help.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I mean, most of our funding comes from corporates, and
they find it really difficult to get their head around everything.
We can show videos, we can invite them into our
training center to actually watch the dogs in action, but
a lot of them are still very Oh no. We
went to the diabetic conference Olympia, the DPC and there
(15:07):
were many even healthcare professionals that were like, no, this
can't happen when we've got the data from our children
where some have had lots of hospital admissions before having
a dog, and actually how many of they had since
it's been placed with you none, how many of you
know how many missions? The proofs really in the pudding.
But yeah, it's it's been really difficult to try and
(15:29):
articulate how dogs can help children. And we can measure
the clinical side obviously with the data that we have,
but the one thing that everyone knows about is how
animals can improve mental well being. But that's the one
thing that we can't measure, and to be honest with you,
is just as important. It really is. But that's the
(15:52):
one side that the companies do come on board with
and say, actually, yeah, we can recognize that, but we
still can't get our heads around how good these dogs can.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
What is it that prevents people from being able to
take that leap of faith. It's not even faith, as
you say, you've got the evidence to back it up.
What do you think is that that disconnect?
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I think it's education. I think a lot of it.
A lot of the talks that we do, people are
still always putting type one in the same box as
type two, and we have to do a lot of
education talks in the community a lot of us. One
of the things that we work with them in the
past was fixing Dad, for example, with the type two
(16:35):
diabetes people. I think we are getting better as a
nation when it comes to animalistic therapy. But yeah, a
lot of people like the proof in the pudding.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Yeah understandably, But I mean.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
The police Dog Service is rightly very well regarded, a
very well respected. Yeah, it's interesting how this seems so different.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yeah, I think it's this science behind it all because
a lot of the clinicians are like, you know, what
are they smelling then? For example, so the studies that
were done over in America showed that there was a
higher increase in the chemical isoprene in your breath when
you go low. So everyone has got isoprene in their breath,
but a higher concentrate. So we know now that that's
(17:24):
the chemical that the dogs are picking up on, and
we target the training for that. When you do first
dai training, everyone talks about if you see someone that's
appearing drunk, if they smell a pair drops, then they
could be high. And obviously then we know that that's
what the dogs are picking up on. And the dogs
have got three hundred million scent receptors in their noses.
(17:46):
We've only got six really, we've got six million. Yeah,
and if we put that into Layman's terms, that's two
tea spoonfuls of sugar that a dog can smell in
an Olympic sized swimming So when we explain things in
that way to the general public, people are like, okay, yeah,
I can get it now. You know, we can train
(18:09):
dogs to find bombs, We can find them to train
narcotics and firearms and people and other diseases. When we
talk about the chemicals and say, you know, it's when
they do. Their noses are so good. There's no reason
why they can't detect this, and they are.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah, this is fascinating. Would you mind explaining to me,
as someone who admittedly also isn't so aware, what brittle
type one is and how specifically it differs to type
one diabetes.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah, so brittle type one is different to normal type one,
where there's no such thing as an amal type one
because everyone's so different, aren' they right? But brittle type
one is where they have absolutely no awareness at all.
They don't get the fizzy legs, the tingling of the fingers.
(19:02):
Some say that their jaws ache, don't they They get nothing.
So it is literally collapsed on a monthly basis.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Wow, And I can imagine, as you say, before the
tech came into the picture, which is very recent in
relative terms, this for you was constant, vigilant this night
and day.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I was absolutely petrified.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
I was.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
You know, I'll hand on heart your dear sens will say,
you know, you don't have to look after them during
the night, you know, if they're going to hypo it
all sort of cells out. I wasn't prepared to take
that risk, and I know many other parents feel the
same way as me. You know, it's almost like, not
on my watch, this isn't going to happen, so you
do you know, I was testing Sophie's bloods every hour
(19:46):
of the night, to the point where I had a
bed in her bedroom. And yeah, that's it's not healthy.
It's not healthy. Albeit, our dogs don't work of a
nighttime because they're not nocturnal. Just that peace of mind
working on alongside the tech that if the tech beeps
and you might sleep through it, that will wake the
dog up. So it's working together with the tech. Really.
(20:09):
You know, during the day, we've got a lot of
our dogs are beating them by fifteen minutes.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Oh really interesting.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
So how has that evolved as the access to the
tech has evolved and become more available. How has the
work that the dogs are doing evolved to kind of,
as you say, work alongside this technology.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, we're never going to replace technology, but we like
working alongside Freestyle and dex Calm. We've got a really
lovely relationship with them. You can't cudd all your pump.
You can't. You can put funky stickers on it, you
could name it something, but I'm sorry, you can't cuddle it.
(20:50):
And there are days when technology does go wrong. Yeah,
you do get your kinked canulas, you do get the
leapers falling off. The dogs work alongside as a complete
holistic package, if you like, for the whole family of
diabetic care. So technology is going to evolve, but there's
(21:11):
always going to be a space for a hyper hoound
in a child's life.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I think, yeah, absolutely, And what have you witnessed? Can
you talk to me about some of the early memories
in terms of seeing that in front of your eyes,
how a hyperhound kind of bridges these very difficult things
that you're facing day to day, and not only the
condition itself, but how you communicate that with their family.
Us as people living with typewanders, don't always want to
(21:38):
talk about it. And you know, when it comes to children,
you just want to be normal and go out and
play and things like that. So what have you witnessed
in terms of the dog being that kind of that
glue and also that bridge to facilitate more conversation, more love,
more joy ultimately, and more freedom for a child and
their family.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
That's right. And inclusivity. For example, we've had a lot
of childre that weren't able to take part in after
school activities because the parents may have been working. Sophie
used to get excluded from things because clubs didn't want
to take on the responsibility. With scoobye they could. She
(22:18):
used to do trampolining and Scooby used to sit at
the side. The coach knew, he roofs there's a problem,
and it worked perfectly. We've got little Thomas with Poppy.
He's currently being scouted by football clubs. Bless him. He's
only five or six. He's absolutely amazing, but you'll be
playing football. And before he would have to miss out
(22:39):
on the whole session because his bloods would drop and
he's almost resistant to his high po treatment and it
would take a good half hour for his bloods to
come up, which meant that he would miss out on
the whole coaching session. But now little Poppy does the alert.
He runs by, Mum shoves and jelly babies in and
(22:59):
he's off because he's actually not gone low because Poppy's
caught it at that rage where he's just starting so
Mom just stops him up and away he goes.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
And there is such a difference as someone living with
type one between catching that hypo and being in the
depths of it and having to wait to come back
up like that, you know. And I don't really have
symptoms anymore, but in terms of my capabilities to think
or or you know, move forward, I think that that
(23:30):
does have a ramification.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
There is a big consequence.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
So for a doult to be able to catch that
before it gets to that point that.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
That must be incredible.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
And specifically in the situation where a child is doing
the thing that they're skilled at, that they enjoy, that
brings them, you know, life and light, that is wonderful.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Exactly, and they should be doing sport if that's what
they want to do. You know, there's no reason why
children with type one diabetes shouldn't be doing sport.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, how did you navigate those conversations? How have you
found coaches and and teachers and other caregivers in terms
of having these discussions around what Sophie previously as a child,
you know, was able to do, and how did you
find that?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, I mean I've got I've made some absolutely amazing
friends because of it, and an amazing support network, and
a lot of them will come on board as coaching
and life coaching now for parents because of using Sophie,
if you like, as a guinea pig to get children
into sport. But yeah, I was very lucky. Sophie had
(24:33):
a one to one in school, so we were really
really blessed with that and absolutely amazing. But it was
the after school clubs that I struggled with. But yeah,
once I found someone that was willing to take it
on and actually have a conversation, you know that this
is what Sophie's got, because obviously she does have other
problems as well. It was almost like, oh, my goodness,
(24:58):
the world is our oyster. She got graded as a
para horse rider and she took part in the Raw
Windsor horse Show three years ago and actually won it,
you know, and that was you know, horse riding things
would have been a big no no. But now that
opened up another world to us because her coach bred
(25:20):
a litter of labradors and became a breeder for us
because they were so impressed of what our work was.
So things happen for a reason. And you know, whenever
things go down for us, I'm a big believer in
you know, there's always there's another door that's going to open,
and it has for us as charity. Whenether something's knocked
us down or Sophie's done, I can't do that, another
(25:43):
door's opened with an even better opportunity.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Wonderful And how has it been for you as mama
as Sophie's gained more independence and has gone on to
achieve these incredible things. And now, as you say, living independently,
she's got her career, Like, what's that been like for
you to witness? I know obviously happens slowly, slowly over
the years, but going from that time, which was understandably
(26:09):
terrifying and exhausting for you, talk to me a little
bit about her and also giving her that independence as well,
it was really hard.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
We've got a lot of our clients now that our
children are going to be going off to college or university,
and yeah, it was really difficult for me. I don't
think I would have felt as positive that as I
did if it hadn't been for Scoopy and now Dory,
(26:38):
because I know that she's okay, she's got someone watching
her back and taken on the role as a mum.
She's got a very understanding boyfriend as well, who's absolutely amazing,
which is fabulous. But yeah, I think without having a dog,
I don't think i'd be having this conversation. I think
we'd be having huge arguments still at home. But I'm very,
(27:03):
very proud, very proud of everything that she's achieved. Yeah,
she's a fabulous ambassador for the charity and for the children.
She still gets involved with the charity and when we
have away days, she gets involved with the kids and
they look up to her now as a bit of
a role model to say, actually, if she can do it,
we can do.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
This episode of Type one on one is sponsored by
dex COOM. As many of you know, I've been using
the Dexcom Continuous Glucose Monitor for years and it's hard
for me to express how much of a difference it's
made to my life. Their CGM sensors give me the
confidence to make informed treatment decisions in the moment, which
is important to me as I'm often running around and
(27:46):
with just a quick glance, I know where my glucose
levels are at, where they're heading, and where they've been
so please take a look at dexcom dot com. They
have a choice of systems so you can find the
right one for your lifestyle. Can you talk to me
a little bit about the process of training a dog
and what that's like, how long it takes.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Yeah, so we've changed the first When we first started
the charity up, it was all about your dog saving
your child's life. But very quickly I realized that not
everyone was like me. A lot of people do struggle,
or bit I struggle, but it depends on your makeup,
(28:26):
if you like, of whether you're someone that is capable
of sort of getting up and doing things, or whether
you're a person that would actually rather just deal with
your own little bubble. And although the dogs were really
good at doing everything, the parents just couldn't commit to
the training. So just before lockdown, as you do, we
(28:49):
changed the whole setup of the charity and we became
very much like what Guide Dogs do, where we source
the puppies, we own the dogs and they're raised by
puppy walkers for the first year, which mitigates a lot
of the training that the parents have to do. By
the time the puppies about one years old, we start
(29:12):
to look at what families we've got on our books
and what lifestyle would suit that particular dog. Because dogs
do they have their own character. You know what they
like and what they don't like, and there's no point
matching a high drive dog with a low drive family.
So by the time they're about one, we start matching them.
That's when the children come to us with playdates, so
(29:34):
the dog gets to use to them in a nice,
safe environment and the children aren't then strangers and either
other family. After they've met a few times and they've
come on a few training sessions, that's when we book
a sleepover, so the dog goes for a sleepover with
the children to make sure that the dog can settle
(29:55):
in the house. And when they've had two sleepovers, that's
when we sit down with a family and say, right,
is it the one for you? And by two sleepovers,
we all know whether or not the dogs settling nicely,
if there's any habits the dogs have or even the
children might have that the dogs don't like, and vice versa.
It's mutually. It's not just one way from the charity's
(30:18):
point of view, it's all about dog welfare and is
it the right family for the dog, but also we
have to speak to the parents because we have had
where parents have gone. Actually we love the dog, the
kids love it, but it's not the right one for us,
in which case we have to reassess things. Sometimes a
year might have gone by because it takes a long
(30:39):
time to train these dogs, that particular child's needs might
have now been superseded by another child's needs, so they
might actually go to the bottom of the queue. But
there's always a space for everyone. But we're not diabetic
or medical specialists at all, so we go by the
clinical teams. So when people are on our books, they
have an annual review of their diabetes to make it
(31:01):
fair for everyone that's applying.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
And what's the criteria for being able to work with
a hyper hand or obtain a hyperhound.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
So for us, it is based on hospital admissions, it's
based on how many hypos the child's having. It is
a working dog, So if someone says to us, oh,
they only have two hypos a month, it's not really
worth us training a dog to the tune of twenty
five pounds for a dog that might only be worked
when there could be a family out there that's a
(31:33):
child even now Sophie has a good six to seven
hyh pos a day, so you know, that's our ideal
client if you like, any children under the age of five,
because they automatically don't have any awareness being so tiny,
they do get priority with us. And we've got a
(31:55):
few babies on our list at the moment, which is
is absolutely heartbreaking, but knowing that we might be able
to help them and then then grow up and we
put them in good stead with their diabetic care so
when they do get to that all forteen age stage,
hopefully they might not rebel as much.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
And how does it work?
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Is there any connection between the charity and the dog
and the child's diabetic care team.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Yeah, so we were really closely with them. Yeah, so
we obviously get the medical forms signed by them. We're
also really blessed to have as one of our trustees
of diabetic specialist nurse, so if we've got any queries
on applications or maybe something's come up, if they can't
get in contact with their diabetic specialist nurs we've got
one on board, which is absolutely amazing. And her spostiality
(32:49):
at the moment is dealing with mental well being as well,
so she's a huge advocate for mental well being and
the use of dogs to help mitigate that within the
family setting.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Incredible, And what's the.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Common challenge or difficulty that children and their families are
facing that come to you with sort of in light
of having the technology?
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Now?
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Is it the lack of symptoms, is it the emotional load?
A combination of things, I'm sure, but what is the
thing that you see?
Speaker 2 (33:24):
It is mainly the parents not having faith in the
technology that is the one thing that we have. There's
one awful of scare stories out there, as everybody knows,
you know, things do go wrong sometimes, but also you know,
they also have a place. Sophie's life changed dramatically when
(33:45):
she went onto a pump, but also when she goes
on holiday she prefers to have some time away from
the pump as well. So, yeah, I think it's a
complete lack of faith, and I think sometimes it's the
edge cation around the technology as well. The parents don't
feel that they've had the support and they don't understand
(34:07):
it fully. Yeah, for us, that's a huge sort of
problem and that's something that hopefully we're going to be
working with some of the big companies to do and
put some support sessions in place for not only our clients,
but for the in the broader scheme of things we
do welfare Wednesdays and which we open up to everybody.
(34:29):
We're starting again in January, so if people want to
come on board and each week is a different topic,
we have a specialist in each week and it's open
to everyone. Just sometimes just have a little bit of
a rent and talk to people that understand.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
And what's the biggest challenge for you as the founder
sort of taking on this work and you know you
hear a lot about these challenges. What do you find
the hardest that you want to do more, that you
want to reach more people, or just the workload. Kind
of talk to me about as a charity.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Found out what you find I find really difficult is
I want to save the world. Yeah, every parent comes
to me. I want to help, but there are those
that we can't. Maybe it's because of their lifestyle, maybe
it's just you know, the dynamics within the family. I
(35:23):
find it really difficult to say no. And I find
it really difficult to switch off as well and not
get emotionally involved. I'm a sucker for a SOB story
because I've been there and I understand how difficult it is.
But then you do, unfortunately, get people taken advantage of that,
(35:44):
which we've had quite a few times. And you know,
there are times when we've had to say right enough, no,
we can't do this anymore. And I find that really difficult.
And I think when people are on a journey with us,
it's all very well then you're going through the applications,
but when we say actually we can't because of this,
people find rejection really difficult because they've been rejected a
(36:07):
lot of times with all their support systems, and we're
just another a door that's closing where we have to
sometimes be very open and say we can only do
what we can do because we're a charity and we're
very small and we've got very limited funds. You know,
it would be lovely, you know, my dream would be
for any child with a prittle type one if they
(36:30):
came to us, to have a dog, But sadly life
isn't like that, and we do we prioritize it on
clinical need, so it is very black and white, but
it has to be that way.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Yeah, And I mean the work you have done and
the people you have to helped. That's that's absolutely incredible.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, we've had people saying, no, I'll write you out
of check tomorrow if my child can have one of
your dogs, and it's like, well, first of all, it
doesn't sit very well with me ethically, but also there's
a charity we can't do that, and it might be
lovely for your child to have a dog, but actually
there's a child X for example, over here that needs
one more than yours. So yeah, it's difficult, it really is.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
And with that in mind, what's your sort of plans
for the charity going forward and what help would be
useful for you moving forward?
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yeah, I think the people going out and talking about
us that would really help. We're going into the world
of corporate funding. At the moment. We don't ask, we
don't charge the families for what we do. They take
on the insurance and the food and the venory care
of the dogs once they've matched, but we don't charge
them the twenty five pounds for the training of the
(37:43):
dog and the ongoing training because obviously diabetes changes. So
you know, we might give a dog to an eight
year old, but in five years time, we've got to
get that dog back in, so we see the dog
four times a year and license it so that we're
constantly on it. If there's any changes with the blood
sugar levels, maybe the ratios need to be changed, whe're
on it that. Yeah, we need people to go out
(38:04):
and talk about us. We need people to go and
talk about how amazing the dogs are. You never know
there might be someone out there with a million pounds
that might go to know what have somebody and then
you can train more dogs for more children.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Is there a time where you bring the families together
at all?
Speaker 3 (38:23):
I know you mentioned the awards.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
So we do. Yeah, we haven't done it this year,
but we try and do a day where we take
the children out for the day and we have a
sibling day, so we take the children and their siblings out,
the parents have a psychology session, which is really nice.
That's one thing that I think makes us kind of
special because the parents have some downtime to speak to
a specialist. And the last one that we had we
(38:47):
took the children on the steam train and it was
twenty children, twenty dogs on a steam train. It was carnage.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
In the best possible way.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
They say, don't work with children and animals. But my goodness,
that was at day to remember. But yeah, that the
parents actually sat down and for some of our clients
actually turn around and said, you know, that's the first
time we've actually sat down as a couple and discussed
how we feel about it because a lot of the time,
you know, stereotypically or not, the mother kind of takes
(39:22):
on the nurturing role. And there was an awful lot
of resentment in the room from the feedback afterwards, because
you know, the mums were saying, you're not getting involved,
why aren't you getting involved? But the feedback came back
with the dads were really scared and messing up and
then that impacting negatively on their marriage. But it was
never being communicated between the two of them. You know,
(39:45):
the dads weren't talking to the mums, and mums weren't talking.
They were thinking, oh, you're just leaving me to it.
I'm exhausted. But the dads were actually scared. And you know,
those sessions, you know, are huge for us. So that
was one. We're hopefull you do another one next year.
But yeah, we have our bigger wards night as well.
Once a year. We took our families on a trip
(40:08):
to Hogwarts this year, and it was all done like
Hogwarts and it's a celebration of success of the team.
So we had the most improved dog, who's done the
most fundraising, who's the volunteer of the year. It's all
a bit of fun, but yeah, we took them on
an Amasian journey. Each year. It's a different theme. So
(40:29):
it's lovely for them because they actually sit with the
foster parents of the dog that brought up their dog
for them, So it was lovely for them to come
and sit meet the dog, meet their families. So we
really are something quite special because it is a huge family.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
Yeah, it really speaks to community.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
And as you spoke about the parents there, that like
completely is what I've heard from the parents of children
with type one that I've interviewed for the podcast.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
How the day to.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Day of it and the demand of it. It really
shifts the dynamic of a couple, of the whole family.
But finding the space and the courage because it's not
easy to converse about feelings around this condition that isn't yours,
but it is such a big part of your life
and impactually so hugely for you to facilitate that space,
(41:22):
you know, as well as the dogs and the children
and all of that. I think, yeah, as you describe
so precious. But what I'm sensing here is this community
which in my experience and where any of the speaking
I've done about Type one has come from, is that
there was a long time where I felt like it
was just me, and you alluded to that earlier in
yourself and what you were going through that it was
(41:43):
just you, and I sensed that this must be a
very strong bond that you will share like everyone that's
involved in the charity.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
I think even conversations now are going on with other
people at our chairman John that you've you've had a
chat with his Type one diabetic and when he came
on board as a trustee, he went back to his
mother and so, Mum, did you feel the way that
Jane felt? Because I didn't, and she went yes, but
I never told you. So there's conversations that are happening
(42:17):
as adult Type ones with their parents, and you know,
it is a grieving process. You grieve for the child
that especially you know Sophie was nine, so she was
a little bit later. You a grieve for the child
that you had before, and you need to be able
to process that. And especially you know, John's obviously a
(42:38):
lot older than Sophie. You know that his parents were
of the mindset of something we don't ever talk about
feelings and things like that. So you know, even him
having conversation now with his parents, did you feel that way?
Speaker 3 (42:50):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (42:50):
I did, and actually I still do.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Yeah, And John is the reason we're speaking. He has
mentioned a little bit of his story to me and
said that he didn't speak about his type one diabetes
at all for thirty five years until he found Hypoverhounds and.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
Started to work with you guys. So yeah, absolutely incredible.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
We have like buddies. You know that our children have buddies,
they have little mentors, they have little clubs, and you
know it's so important. You know, everyone talks about mental
health and talking. We don't talk enough about type one diabetes,
and we don't encourage our children to be the brave
warriors that they are and be proud of it and
(43:34):
say I've got this and I'm not ashamed of it.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
It's me absolutely, And for those who are listening and
are no doubt inspired to find out more, how can
people support the work you're doing. Like, what are different
ways that people can get involved?
Speaker 2 (43:50):
Yeap. Obviously you can sponsor a dog. You can go
to the website and sponsor a dog. What we really
need at the moment is more of volunteers. So we're
open hubs up all over the country. We can only
open them if we've got a team of volunteers. So
if for example, we've got hubs in Hampshire, Berkshire, Reading
(44:11):
Ssex or six Surrey. We've even got one in Northern
Ireland now. But if there was a group of people
that could get together and then do the village fates
become a talk for us, go into communities, talk at
your local WI, raise awareness. Not only are they raising
awareness of the charity, but they're also reaching out possibly
(44:32):
to that one family that might benefit from us, and
also maybe a funder which would be really nice too.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
And what's been your proudest moment if you have one?
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Oh god, there's too many's, there's too many. But I
think for us at the moment, we've we've just won
the Mental well Being Awards for Kent for being Mental
well Being Champions. So for a charity that actually didn't
start out as mental well being. It was about this
istant dog and the clinical need to actually be formally
recognized by the Lord Lieutenant of Kent and we were
(45:06):
crowned champions in the whole of Kent for mental health
services for children. That was huge. But we've also just
found out we have a finalist for the BQF Awards
up at Wembley Arena next year and that is huge.
Robber gets some huge businesses for doing amazing things with
amazing people. So yeah, but every dog that doesn't alert,
(45:30):
you know, every time we get a phone call said
do you know what the dog's done this today? It
still gives me goosebumps.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Now, yeah, absolutely, I love this so much. Have you
found that as you're entering, you know, awards and things
and speaking to people outside of diabetes communities, what's the
reaction when you tell people what the charity is and
what it does and how it helps people. What's the
kind of response you get from people who live outside
of the type one diabetes bubble.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
A lot of people didn't even know about type one
and children, they and they and they hold their hands
up because you hear about you always hear about diabetes
on news. They never specify classified type one. So it's
all about education, but that they are blown away, especially
if we take a puppy with us.
Speaker 3 (46:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Absolutely. I can imagine if I do like a networking
event and I take a puppy, My goodness, everyone wants.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
A very good way to pk interest. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
I can imagine. You don't want to know about the
type dibetes by here's the.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Dog you're going to learn. But it's getting them, you know,
because of the puppies. We're then being invited to go
into the workplace. So we've got a lot of companies
that sponsor our work, but not because of the link
to type one. They want a dog in their workplace
to improve productivity and improve the mental well being. It
(46:54):
helps us with the socialization of our dogs. So it's
kind of a winner winner. Really love that.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
And what makes a good hypohound if there is such
a thing, as you know, does it differ?
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Yeah. I mean we're often talked about what breeds are
best as well, So if I can put it in
layman terms for you, your Springer Spaniel is your Ferrari
of the scent detection world. They are amazing. However, they
don't slow down your labrador is your reliable for Mondeo.
(47:29):
It's cheap to run. Love this family friendly and everyone
loves them nice and comfortable, So yeah, it is your labradors.
We want nice, steady, family friendly dogs that are well socialized,
behave impeccably. We don't want them to be bobots. You know,
(47:50):
they are allowed to be naughty. You know, when they're
not on duty, they can go and roll in fox poo,
they can do whatever they like. But the minute they
put that uniform on, they represented the charity and they know,
and you can see by the whole body language of
the dogs. They walk around like this with their uniforms on,
looking all proud, almost looking at the other dogs to say,
do you know what I'm allowed to go in that restaurant?
(48:11):
You're not?
Speaker 3 (48:13):
Oh my gosh, wow.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
And tell me about the joy that you personally get
from interacting with these dogs, having these dogs in your
life after retiring and you know, very sudden circumstances. Speak
to me a bit about about your feelings about about that.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
I'm a huge dog lover anyway, So yeah, yeah, puppy
days in the office. Now I'm in Norfolk. If I
know that puppies are going to be in the office.
I'm down there, I'm pulling rank. All the dogs are
named after Disney characters as well, so we have a
pool breeders that. Yeah, we've got a Star Wars litter
(48:52):
for example, So we've got a little black labrador called Vader.
We've got an Obi Wan, Canobia, Yoda, Luke, and and
then I've got another breeder who is our Lion Kings.
We've got a Simbranala, Pumbur and Timone. So yeah, it's
all a bit of fun, very serious, but it's all
a bit of fun. But yeah, I absolutely love it.
(49:14):
I'm living the dream. The only horrible thing is, you know,
when we have to say no sometimes. But other than that,
I really am you know, it's it's a lovely job,
it really is, and very proud of it.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
John told me you were incredible. That was his first sentence,
and I please, he's not wrong. And how about your husband,
what does he make of all this? And how involved
is Yeah he's.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
Still he's still working in the police, so he's he's
busy with that. But yeah he's very very proud, Yeah,
very proud. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
And where can people find you if they want to say? Hello,
or maybe ask some questions about hyper Hounds.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
We're on all our socials. We've got Instagram, hyper Hounds,
We're on Facebook. I know that's a bit archaic now
for some people. Yeah, hopefully we're I think we're going
to be starting in the realms of TikTok because someone said,
you know, it'd be really lovely to see like the
naughty side of the puppies.
Speaker 3 (50:07):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Yeah, that'd be huge. But yeap our website hyperhounds dot
co dot uk. There's lots of information on there and
how you can become involved as a volunteer, download a
pack or even if you think that we might be
able to help you, the application forms are on there too.
We're also at loads of events through the year. Come
a visit. They're always on our socials where we're going
(50:29):
to be. Come down supporter us, come and meet the team,
come and play with the puppies, come and meet us.
Speaker 3 (50:37):
Lovely.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Yeah, I really like the in personness of this, because
you know, online communities are amazing, but the presence of
a dog and seeing those families come together, I think
it's something really special from what you've said, so I
cannot thank you enough.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
For talking to me.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
Thanks you're in the midst of our house move and
many other things, but thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
No, thank you.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
I hope you enjoyed this episode of Type one on one.
Speaker 3 (51:04):
Please remember that.
Speaker 1 (51:05):
Nothing you hear on this podcast should be taken as
medical advice. I'm definitely not a healthcare professional. If you
like what you hear, hit subscribe and do leave a
little review on iTunes if you have time. It really
helps to spread the word about type one diabetes. And
thank you so much for listening.
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