Rescue Dog Saves Woman's Life Just Months After She Saved Her

July 3, 2023

In a remarkable story that highlights the incredible abilities of our four-legged friends, a rescue dog has been credited with saving a woman's life by detecting her breast cancer through its exceptional sense of smell.

Claire and Holly / Credit: ExaminerLive.co.uk

A Jack Russell-chihuahua mix named Holly was left at the door of a Yorkshire rescue center in late 2019. Soon after, she was rescued by Claire Churchill.

"When I first got her, I thought she was just weird," Claire, 36, told Yorkshire Live. "She would always stuff her nose down my top...As she got bigger towards the summer of 2020, she started pawing at my boob - only my left - and started scratching. She used to fall asleep on my left breast, not the other. It was going on and on and on."

In August of 2020, Claire said Holly was "almost crying and murmuring" and wouldn't leave her left breast alone.

"I thought 'what are you doing?' I thought I had some crisps or a biscuit down there. I started feeling around down there and thought I could feel a lump. I thought 'it doesn't feel very good'," she said.

In November 2020, Claire was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent a mastectomy in December last year and had chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She is now cancer-free.

"In the Doomsday book of life we were at 11.59pm. The biggest tumor was 7.8cm. I was in my early 30s and wasn't looking for it. If it wasn't for Holly, I wouldn't have known and would have died," she said.

"As soon as I had my mastectomy she left me alone. She's never done it again since then and it's like she's satisfied and happy it has gone."

"She's three now and is my little angel. I don't know what I'd do without her," she said.