German Shepherd Teddi named Beatson 'Ambassadog'

Supporters of the Beatson cancer charity have voted for a patient's dog to become its new 'Ambassadog'.

Three-year-old black German Shepherd, Teddi, was put forward by his owners Hazel Ann and Kevin Gilbert, following Kevin's tonsil cancer diagnosis.

Teddi takes over duties from Milo the bichon frise, from Irvine, who has served as the Ambassadog since September last year.

Kevin, who was diagnosed in July, is still waiting on PET scan results, which he will receive in the next few months and hopes they will bring some positive news.

Hazel said: “Kevin’s never been to the doctors in his life and then he was diagnosed.

“Originally, we went to Forth Valley and they said it was secondary cancer which was a bit of a blow because quite often if people are diagnosed with cancer, they say ‘let’s hope it’s not moved to the lymph nodes and let’s hope it’s not spread.

“I thought it was a wee cyst he had and they said ‘no it’s secondary cancer, it’s in the lymph nodes, we need to find the primary cancer’.

“They ran loads of different tests and it was stage three tonsil cancer and he was referred very quickly to the Beatson hospital to start six weeks of treatment. He had two cycles of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiotherapy every day apart from at weekends. They’re just marvellous.”

Teddi came into the couple’s life after their previous dog, Yogi, passed away.

They were certain their next dog had to be another black German Shepherd and brought Teddi home from a breeder in Cambridge.

Hazel said the competition seemed like a perfect fit to keep their connection with the hospital and the charity.

She said: “We felt lost without the Beatson so when we saw the competition I thought ‘that’s a way for us to keep connected with the Beatson and all the good work that they do and hopefully promote it and try and raise some funds for it’.

“Teddi likes dogs but he’s very much a people person. He just loves meeting people. He’s just so friendly and I think any event that we had to take him to that we had to represent you guys at he would be very sociable.”

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