GOOD TEAM: Members of the Kotuku Foundation Merenia Donne (back left), Simon Parry and Charlotte Bellis (front left), Ricca, Esther Schoser and Molly, Flip Calkoen, Vicky Parry and Ada. PHOTO/SUPPLIED 23062015WCSUPKOTUKA1
GOOD TEAM: Members of the Kotuku Foundation Merenia Donne (back left), Simon Parry and Charlotte Bellis (front left), Ricca, Esther Schoser and Molly, Flip Calkoen, Vicky Parry and Ada. PHOTO/SUPPLIED 23062015WCSUPKOTUKA1
Merenia Donne knows better than most just how helpful dogs can be when it comes to saving human lives.
She probably would not be alive if her German shepherd Nikki had not pulled her from a car wreck 18 years ago.
Nikki died of untreatable bone cancer some years laterand Wanganui's Ms Donne started the Kotuku Foundation - Animals Assist Aotearoa, in her memory, in 2006.
Nominated for a Pride of New Zealand community spirit award, the foundation trains dogs to help people with medical conditions such as diabetes, cardiac and neurological conditions, anaphylaxis and narcolepsy.
With minimal funding and a lot of voluntary help - the foundation has voluntary assistance dogs working around the country, including Taranaki-based Molly.
The little spaniel monitors Esther Schoser's blood sugar levels by smell to help control her type 1 diabetes, and husky Ada does the same for her owner Vicky Parry in Wellington.
"The dogs are able to give the owners a 45-minute warning, if their blood sugar levels are approaching hypoglycaemia, so they are able to take action.
"It costs around $5000 to treat a person with hypoglycaemia so these dogs can save the Ministry of Health truckloads of money."
Ms Donne suffered frontal lobe brain injury in her car accident, which sometimes causes memory loss, and she has her own medical assist dog - German shepherd Ricca.
"We train different breeds of dogs - it is about their temperament and abilities rather than breeding. If someone already has a dog as a pet we can give it the same tests as the dogs that we train ourselves and that often works out well. Vicky's dog Ada was her pet before she trained to be her assist dog and she's brilliant."
The Kotuku Foundation has the support of Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae, who is the foundation's patron, and journalist Charlotte Bellis is an ambassador.
"We have some fantastic people who lend their expertise as well - Flip Calkoen is an internationally renowned dog trainer and he has flown all over the country to train dogs - from Auckland to Te Anau.
"I am so thankful to all the people who give us their time and support but it would be nice to be able to pay people and train more dogs because there are so many more people who could benefit from having medical assist dogs."
The Pride of New Zealand Awards are proudly brought to you by The New Zealand Herald, The Hits and TSB Bank. Nominations for the 2015 awards have now closed. To see more stories of our wonderful nominees click here. For more information on the awards go to the official website.
