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Note: Around 10,000 people in the UK are in need of a life-saving, orTaska is thought to be the only assistance dog working with an NHS nurse, helping life-changing, transplant, and three a day die because there aren'ther to perform her everyday duties. Bethann Siviter, of Halesowen, kept a diary for the enough donor organs available. ABI JACKSON finds out whyBirmingham Mail to show how helpful the mutt can be. ANUJI VARMA reports
EWVERY morning, Amanda Fraser traipses downstairs and flicks on the kettle as her home comes to life for another day.
HEN nurse Bethann Siviter drops her pen on the floor, her dog Taska is quick to pick it up for her. In fact, the labrador performs a number of tasks for her. at Teenage feet thud across the landing, sports kits are shoved into bags and there are frantic sock hunts before everybody goes on their way.
was Bethann, who works for Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust as a nurse consultant for older people, is disabled.
card It's an unremarkable family scene. But things could easily have been drastically different in the Fraser household.
Back surgery in 2006 left her in chronic pain and with poor mobility.
So Taska helps her in her everyday duties at work - and at home.
Last year, mother-of-three Amanda suffered sudden liver failure. and She was paired with the labrador in November 2011 through Canine Partners and the charity believes three-year-old Taska is the only assistance dog to be working with an active NHS nurse. if 28% "I'd come down with a stubborn chest infection in the New Year," recalls Amanda, 40. "Despite three rounds of antibiotics, it wouldn't clear. Then I noticed my skin had started to look yellow."
19 "Since her arrival, I have less pain and my disability is easier to manage," says Bethann, aged 50.
"She has been to awards dinners, academic ceremonies, anywhere I go, she goes. Even to hospital appointments, where she carefully watches everything."
Jaundice can be a tell-tale sign of liver problems. Scans revealed nothing at first but on March 17, feeling wretched, Amanda asked her husband to drive her to hospital.
Bethann, who lives with 55-yearold husband Andrew, adds: "Taska is my angel. But many more disabled...