Charity Reg. No. 1088281

Hannah Baker was only six years of age when epilepsy reared its ugly head. She began dropping things for no apparent reason and black lines mysteriously appeared across her drawings as seizures caused her hand to shoot across the paper. 

After several scans she was diagnosed with a non malignant brain tumour and over the next few years her seizures gradually grew worse until Hannah was suffering as many as 80 a day of varying degrees of severity. Her epilepsy was so incapacitating; she was virtually housebound requiring a carer 24 hours a day. Simple tasks like showering meant constantly singing to alert her family and carers that she was okay. As a child she had to sleep in a double bed to prevent falling out and injuring herself. Accidents like breaking her jaw in three places became common place. 

An operation to remove the tumour only served to make matters worse and by her teens, Hannah was beginning to believe she would never live any semblance of a normal life. She had to give up her hopes of going to university and grew more and more depressed as her school friends moved away to enjoy student life across the country.

A further operation to implant a vagal nerve stimulator along with constant changes of medication provided some help, but then Hannah received the bad news that any further brain surgery was deemed too dangerous and could leave her paralyzed or worse. She had run out of options and, facing a bleak future, Hannah spiralled further into depression.

Then, by chance, Hannah’s mum Nicola, heard a feature about Support Dogs on Woman’s Hour on Radio 4. She immediately picked up the phone and contacted the charity realising that this was possibly the last opportunity to help her daughter.  

Just eight months ago Hannah was matched with Milo, a white standard poodle. Like all Support Dogs clients, Hannah knew the training programme would be difficult, time consuming and that there were no guarantees, but believing Milo was her last hope, she persevered.

Milo graduated as a Seizure Alert Dog® last week much to Hannah’s relief for the confidence Milo has brought her, combined with her medical treatment has reduced her seizures to 10-12 a day. She is now able to go out and about, and achieve simple aims such as visiting friends and family.  

Milo signals that a seizure is imminent by staring at Hannah intently, refusing to be distracted, even by food. Hannah then knows to attempt to stroke him and if he pulls away, she knows she is about to have a seizure. The 8-10 minutes warning Milo gives Hannah, allows her to move away dangerous items such as hot drinks and sit down to prevent injury in the event of a grand mal seizure. She has achieved many of the simple aims she set herself before starting the training programme, such as visiting the library and has even travelled independently as far as London to visit family and friends. 

From a reclusive shy girl who never really had a childhood, Hannah is now a bright intelligent young lady looking forward to her 21^st birthday in March. When asked what Milo meant to her, she summed it up quite simply: “Milo means the world to me”