Lonely elderly and vulnerable people in the North East are set to receive some joy from wagging tails and chinwags.
We have donated £2,500 from our community fund to pay for befriending visits from dogs and their owners to older dog lovers in their own homes and vulnerable people in care or hospitals locally.
The money, given to charity Wag and Company North East Friendship Dogs, will enable either 186 home visits to isolated elderly dog lovers or 1,674 visits to vulnerable people in care or hospital over the course of a year.
Wag & Company connect volunteers and their pet dogs with elderly or vulnerable dog lovers who often have failing health and mobility or are bereaved or isolated and can’t have a dog of their own any more. The visits give people something to look forward to, where they get human company with a fellow dog lover for a chat and cuddles from a furry friend.
Diane Morton, Founder and Chair of Wag & Company said: “Loneliness can damage your physical, as well as your mental health, and we know from feedback from the people we visit that regular visits and cuddles with our dogs and chats over a cuppa with their owners make a huge difference to the way they feel about their lives.”
“We rely on donations to enable our often life-changing work, so we are very grateful to TT2 for the support.”
Our CEO, Adrian Wallace, TT2 Ltd, said: “When we heard about what Wag & Company do, they were an obvious choice to support with our community fund. Dogs are proven to reduce stress, anxiety, depression and ease loneliness – it’s such a brilliant idea to have more people benefit from dogs.”
To read more about what TT2 is doing to support the local community, click here.