A stay in hospital is very difficult for a child to cope with, no matter how short it is. However, children that face long-term stays in hospital can find the time passes particularly slowly.

For that reason, we thought it was a lovely idea to sponsor the ‘Pet Therapy’ initiative in Temple Street. Through this initiative, a dog is brought to the hospital every Thursday to meet the children.

Peata is the charity which provides the specially trained dogs. On the day we visited the hospital, it was the turn of Max, an adorable golden retriever. We got to tour the hospital with Max, his owner Linda and two of the play therapists.

To see the joy that Max brought to the wards was amazing. He was gentle and patient and more than willing to pose for photographs. The children who were missing their dogs from home were particularly excited about seeing him.

“We want to say a big thank you to taxback.com for sponsoring our Pet Therapy initiative for the rest of 2012. It’s such a great boost to the children and they really look forward to Thursday mornings. One little boy even asked us to make sure his dialysis didn’t clash with Max’s visit!”

We’re delighted to have helped Temple Street with such a novel idea and look forward to working with them in the future.