Medical alert dog Kenny helps owner with life-threatening conditions
A medical alert dog named Kenny assists his owner Kate, who has life-threatening conditions, transforming her daily life and independence.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
A medical alert dog named Kenny has transformed the life of a 22 year old woman from Shepton Mallet, who says he has saved her life hundreds of times. Kate Hegan lives with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, which can cause severe allergic reactions, and Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), which makes her faint multiple times a day. Before Kenny arrived, she was chaperoned around the clock and could not even go to the toilet alone at school after being found unconscious in a pool of her own blood.
Kenny is a medical detection dog trained by the charity Medical Detection Dogs. He picks up on a change in body odour that occurs when Kate is about to become unwell. This early warning gives her time to get to a safe place, take medication, or call for help. During filming, Kenny gave a clear alert that Kate was minutes away from passing out. With her permission, the crew kept recording as she made herself safe and Kenny watched over her until she regained consciousness.
Kate described one life threatening incident when she was home alone and went into anaphylaxis. Kenny pre-warned her, allowing her to take her EpiPen and call an ambulance before her throat closed. The ambulance team told her that without Kenny she would not have made it. Since then, Kenny has alerted to about 40 anaphylactic episodes in a year, each one a life saving moment. He also wakes her at night when she needs help and goes to get her parents.
Georgie Lloyd from Medical Detection Dogs explained that dogs have 300 million scent receptors compared to humans' 5 million, and they are trained to pair the scent change with a reward. She said the dogs are truly life saving and give clients a level of independence they could not put into words. The charity is expanding its work and is looking for volunteers in the Bristol area, including socialisers and drivers, to help train more dogs and support more clients.
For Kate, Kenny has given her a normal life. She can now leave the house, meet friends, and go to a cafe, things she could only dream of before. She said: "Without him, I would still be the girl who spent 90% of her time in bed with no ambitions, nothing to do, feeling lonely, really upset and just wrapped in bubble wrap. And with Kenny, it's just completely changed my future and my outlook."
On screen
Stills are sampled automatically at 60-second intervals. Where shown, the still is the nearest available frame from the relevant broadcast segment and is included to show what was on screen during that part of the broadcast. A still may not correspond to the exact second of a quoted phrase.
Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, mapped by channel. Ordered by how many channels carried each claim.
| Claim | ITV |
|---|---|
| Kate has Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and Postural Tachycardia Syndrome. | |
| Kenny alerts to changes in body odour that signal an impending medical episode. | |
| Kenny has alerted to about 40 anaphylactic episodes in a year. |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
The report focuses on the emotional human interest story of Kate and Kenny, with a strong emphasis on the life saving impact and the practical training behind medical detection dogs. It includes an interview with a charity representative and a live demonstration of Kenny's alert during filming, making the story vivid and personal.
- “With Kenny, it's just completely changed my life.”
- “Quite literally without Kenny, I wouldn't be sat here today.”
- “He's alerted to about 40 anaphylactic episodes since then in about a year and each one is a life-saving moment”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.