How assistance dog helped support Angela living with type 1 diabetes for more than 20 years
Angela pays tribute to canine pals who have supported her with complications related to type 1 diabetes.
Angela Cooke has praised the support she has received from assistance dogs to help her with day-to-day tasks as she has complications related to type 1 diabetes.
Angela, of Doncaster, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes aged 13. This led to additional complications that have significantly affected her physical health and mobility for the past 40 years.
Originally from Wales, Angela is registered as partially sighted and has problems with her hands and balance.
Angela, who walks with two crutches and sometimes needs to use a wheelchair, said: “It’s almost as if somebody puts a blanket of pain over you.”
To help her with a range of tasks Angela discovered the Support Dogs charity - which trains and provides specialist assistance dogs to help autistic children, as well as adults with a physical disability and those affected by epilepsy, to live safer, more independent lives.
She has recently graduated with her third disability assistance dog, Bonbon.
Like predecessors’ pet lurcher cross Siân and yellow Labrador Freya, Bonbon has been trained to help her with a range of tasks.
These include picking objects up, opening doors, helping her to get undressed and giving an alert bark to fetch help.
Angela first discovered the charity after seeing one of the blue jacket-clad “wonderdogs” in her GP surgery and looked them up online.
She qualified with Siân in 2010, when the pooch was aged around five and following two years of training.
Angela, who worked as a nursing home cook before becoming ill, gave back to the charity as she volunteered doing general administration at their office to help show her appreciation.
Siân retired when she was 10 and Angela was then provided her subsequent disability dog, Freya.
Angela was named Support Dogs’ Client Fundraiser of the Year 2017 after Angela, supported by husband Peter, son Daniel and carer Angie, completed 28 miles of the South Wales’ Taff Trail to mark Support Dogs’ 25th anniversary, raising almost £400 for the charity that transformed her life.
Freya retired in 2022 at the age of 11 and now lives with a friend of Angela’s.
Angela’s current support dog, Bonbon, went to live with her in late 2023 and they put into practice everything they learned at Support Dogs’ training centre before graduating in November 2025.
Pictured: Angela with her previous support dogs Freya and Sian, and Angela picking up her certificate at Support Dogs’ annual graduation and awards ceremony from Support Dogs assessor Katie Patmore (credit S L Photo & Film)
Angela said: “She’s so sharp. If she sees something that needs doing, she will do it.”
Angela has even dyed her hair in what she calls ‘Support Dogs blue’, which helps raise awareness of the life-changing cause.
Angela said: “They have given me so much support over the years. It’s all good quality people who provide good quality dogs and they are just brilliant.”
She added: “I would probably be in a permanent depression, and I would not have been able to live day by day. But my dogs have provided so much joy and people love seeing them working.
“Daily they do a brilliant job, and my life would not be worth living without them.”
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