Katie and Cookie - our therapy dogs

Date: 18 July 2017

Katie and Cookie, Therapy Dogs

Our volunteers come from all sorts of background and walks of life, but there are a couple who are a little different from the others.

Katie and Cookie are the two therapy dogs that regularly visit the hospital to bring cheer to patients across our departments. The pair are very popular with all of our patients, young and old, and have one of the biggest Twitter followings of anyone working at the Trust!

Katie and Cookie are able to visit and spend time cheering up our patients thanks to the hard work of the owners, Trust volunteers Janet and Bob. We caught up with Janet to nd out a little about their – as well as Katie and Cookie’s – volunteering story.

How did you start volunteering?

We started after Bob retired nearly 10 years ago; we had Katie, who had a lot of training to be a therapy dog, and then we bought Cookie. We’d lost a close family member to cancer about ten years before, and we wanted to do something to bring comfort to people who were in the same situation, patients and families. We know what it’s like because we have been through it ourselves and we wanted to help others, to help families.

How do you volunteer?

The main thing we do is bring Katie and Cookie in to see patients, families and staff as well. We visit across the hospital; we spend a lot of time in the children’s wards, but we also go to intensive care, the adult wards, all over. We come in every morning, five days a week, but we are often here for the whole day and we will always come in whenever we’re needed. If someone is really unwell and would like the comfort the dogs can bring, we’ll be there. We also do a lot of extra work in the children’s wards and children’s A&E, keeping their minds occupied with the dogs and with colouring books and photos we give out. We also collect old rosettes from dog owners across Kent which we give to children as little prizes and keepsakes and that can really cheer them up.

What is the most important thing about volunteering to you?

Know that you’ve helped, that you’ve made a difficult situation a bit less difficult for a patient or a family. We still bump into people when we’re out and about in the area who recognise us and will come up and tell us that their child still has photos of the dogs and to thank us for helping them. We don’t do it to be thanked, but it is nice to know that we made a difference to people.

As for Katie and Cookie – they love a fuss, so they love coming in and miss it if they aren’t able to come in; particularly when patients feed them ice cream!

What would you say to anyone who is thinking about volunteering?

Just do it. It’s really worth it. No matter how much you put in, you always get more out.

  • Summary:

    Katie and Cookie are the two therapy dogs that regularly visit the hospital to bring cheer to patients across our departments. The pair are very popular with all of our patients, young and old, and have one of the biggest Twitter followings of anyone working at the Trust!