Love Your Pet Day inspires volunteer hunt at Birmingham Hospital

This National ‘Love Your Pet Day’, we are celebrating our wonderful Pets in Hospital Volunteers and are on the hunt for another special volunteer for Good Hope Hospital.

Our Pets in Hospital visits to wards and departments across University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust are a firm favourite with staff and patients. The dogs and their owners bring a smile to their faces and remind them of home. We currently have volunteers that visit patients every week at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Heartlands Hospital and Solihull Hospital.

Lloyd the Golden Retriever visits patients and staff at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham with his owner, Sarah.

Sarah, said: “There is a genuine enjoyment for us seeing Lloyd ‘at work’ – though it’s hard to justify the term ‘work’ when one hears and sees the obvious pleasure his greetings bring to the patients and staff alike, it’s more like a pleasure boat ride for him and it seems for others too. That said, having had the wealth of experience of training him we do know how the journey to what he’s doing now was always about a life dedicated to service and it’s terrific that we are able to share this character filled goldie with others here at the hospital.”

Good Hope Hospital Charity is currently looking for its own four-legged volunteer, for weekly visits to brighten our patients’ day. No experience is needed to volunteer, just a friendly, approachable manner and a love of meeting new people. Volunteering as a Pets in Hospital Volunteer is a fantastic way to meet new people and spread some joy, full training is provided and the Charity has a dedicated Volunteer Co-ordinator to offer support and advice to volunteers.

To keep the scheme going, we are also looking for donors to sponsor a dog for £30 a month, so that visits can continue for years to come. The money raised through sponsorship helps the charity to cover the costs of the assessments, training, and equipment needed for the dogs to be able to visit the ward and departments across the trust.

All dogs participating in Pets in Hospitals as a volunteer must always be accompanied by their owner, be at least three years old and in good health.

To become a Pets in Hospitals volunteer at Good Hope Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Heartlands Hospital or Solihull Hospital, or to find out more about sponsoring a dog, visit: hospitalcharity.org/appeals/pets-in-hospital