A mother from Nottingham, England calls her dog her ‘little lifesaver’ for detecting her breast cancer by sniffing and pawing at her boob.
The mother of two, Trisha Allison, 50, was lying on the couch watching TV one day when her 2-year-old dog, Luna, jumped on her and hit her right breast, per The Daily Mail.
The Greyhound mix then continued to sniff and nudge Allison’s chest, which Allison says was something the pooch never does. She tells BBC, “She’s a very affectionate dog but she’s never behaved like that before – she wouldn’t leave me alone.”
After 45 minutes, Allison started feeling pain on her right breast, so she made an appointment to get it checked.
And when she got the result of her biopsy two weeks later, she found out that she has breast cancer. Allison recalls, “They have caught it [the cancer] early. I think she knew – she’s my little lifesaver.”
Since being diagnosed with breast cancer, Allison has had two operations at Nottingham City Hospital to remove the lump. And she is currently waiting to find out if she will need to undergo chemotherapy.
As per New York Post‘s report, Allison admitted it was hard to explain how it felt when they diagnosed her with breast cancer.
She said, “When they say, ‘I am sorry to tell you it is cancer,’ your whole world falls apart, and you just wonder what size coffin you’re going to need.”
“The thing is, I am a positive person, but when you are sitting in that room, you have it all in your head that you are fine and that you’re not ill,” Allison continued.
Despite this, Allison said her story would’ve been a lot different if not for her dog’s helping paw that day. She said, “If it wasn’t for Luna, I would not have found it that day.”
In a Facebook post, Allison said, “I wanted to highlight that always check yourself regularly ladies and gents, and that our dogs are blooming amazing… Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Luna.”
