This retired northern couple have fostered a dog who only has months to live
Helen and John Brierley welcomed 10-year-old Boxer Mastiff cross Sugar into their home so she can spend her final days in comfort with "unconditional love".
A retired northern couple have explained their decision to foster a dog who only has a few months left to live.
10-year-old Boxer Mastiff cross Sugar has an inoperable, cancerous tumour growing on one of her anal glands that could eventually stop her from going to the toilet, which has meant that she had sadly been constantly overlooked at an Oldham-based rescue centre before being taken in by the kind-hearted couple.
Helen and John Brierley, both aged 64, welcomed Sugar into their West Yorkshire home so she can spend her final days in comfort with “unconditional love”.
Speaking on their decision to give Sugar the best farewell possible, Helen – a part-time carer – told TeamDogs: “My partner and I are now semi-retired, so we took on a boxer four years ago who was a senior rescue dog called Charlie and was lovely company – she became part of the family.
“When we had to put her down, John and I were absolutely devastated, and we said we wouldn’t have another dog.
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“But when I saw Sugar on Pennine Pen Animal Rescue’s website, she just looked like Charlie.”
Helen continued: “Initially, we thought it’d be a no-go to foster her because we had two guinea pigs in the house, but she appeared not to be bothered by them at all.
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“Her condition might be a bad thing to many people.
“But for us, we saw the bit of life that’s still in her, and we wanted to give her a chance.”
Credit: Helen Brierley
The couple explained that Sugar has taken everything in her stride and found herself very comfortable in the house, which has allowed Helen and Jon to provide her with the palliative care she needed.
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“Originally, we thought that if it’s only a short term foster, then we might not get too attached to Sugar,” Helen said.
“But it’s not working as we thought and we are now very attached to her.
“She’s a lovely surprise in many ways. She’s great on the lead and enjoys a short walk. She’s not aggressive to other dogs, which is completely unlike Charlie, who was a puller.”
Staff at Pennine Pen Animal Rescue said Sugar stayed with the rescue for six weeks but “didn’t have much interest at all” before they sent out an appeal on Facebook and Helen and Jon were found to be suitable.
The rescue centre later announced the heart-warming news of Sugar finally finding a foster home on its Facebook Page to endless praise for Helen and Jon.
Featured Image – Helen Brierley
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Pep Guardiola delivers gutting news as Man City are hit with Erling Haaland injury blow
Danny Jones
Pep Guardiola has passed on some gutting fitness news for Manchester City fans as star striker Erling Haaland is confirmed to be injured for several weeks and could even miss the rest of the Premier League season.
The title might be out of reach this year, and the Champions League knockout against Real Madrid was definitely hard for Blues to take, but with Man City into the semi-finals of the FA Cup, there’s still a very strong chance they could end 2024/25 with a piece of silverware.
However, they’ll have to make it through another two massive rounds at Wembley and seemingly the remainder of the season without Haaland and his goals, as the Catalan coach revealed that the club expects him to be out injured for “six to seven weeks.”
Not exactly how City fans would have wanted to see the rest of an already frustrating season play out.
🗣️ "We don't have another player with his skills."
Relaying diagnosis from the medical team, Pep said the hope is that the big Norwegian number nine could be back for the very tail end of the campaign, but at the very least, he “will be ready for the [FIFA Club] World Cup.”
He went on to add that “these kinds of things happen” and that he feels “sorry” for all of the other injuries that have befell his squad up till now, adding that they can only hope for a speedy recovery and for him to return as soon as possible.
The 24-year-old hasn’t had too many big injury problems in his career thus far, although his longest spell on the sidelines did come at the end of 2023 when a stress fracture kept him out until the new year.
This time around, Haaland suffered an injury to his ankle during the City’s FA Cup win over Bournemouth on Sunday following a challenge from defensive midfielder Lewis Cook.
He was forced in the second half and was seen leaving the Vitality Stadium on crutches after the game.
Erling Haaland seen leaving Bournemouth in a protective boot and crutches. 🤕
Having led the golden boot race for a good chunk of the season – as he’s become accustomed too since he arrived in England – City‘s sub-optimal season has seen him slink into second behind high-flying Mo Salah on 27, but he still has a couple dozen goals and a trio of assists to show for it.
Speaking of Salah, the soon-to-leave ‘Egyptian King’ has been the talisman for Liverpool this season, and his contributions could see them lift the trophy in Arne Slot’s first season as early as 13 April, depending on how fellow title rivals Arsenal fare in their next two matches.
As for how City round out their domestic campaign, reclaiming the FA Cup after last year’s derby disappointment looks like the main goal.
You can watch Pep Guardiola’s press conference ahead of the game against Leicester City at 19:45pm tomorrow (Wednesday, 2 April) in full HERE.
Hilarious study names Manchester as one of the UK’s most hungover cities
Emily Sergeant
Manchester has been named one of the UK’s most hungover cities, according to a hilarious new study.
Let’s be honest, we’ve all had one of those mornings – or a lot more than one, for many of us.
The kind where you wake up regretting ordering that last pint, or your decision to mix your drinks, questioning every life choice while desperately Googling ‘hangover cures that actually work’… but it turns out that some UK cities are way more prone to struggling with hangovers than others, and Manchester is one of them.
In a bid to uncover where in the country people are searching for hangover cures the most, alcohol-free beer brand Mash Gang has crunched the numbers and analysed more than 5.5 million Google searches across every city.
Manchester has been named one of the UK’s most hungover cities / Credit: Kraken Images (via Unsplash)
We always knew Manchester would be close to the top, but in this instance, we’ve actually just missed out on the number one spot, as our city has officially been ranked the second most hungover in the UK, just behind the ‘undisputed hungover capital’ itself, which is Birmingham.
According to the study, whether it’s the legendary Northern Quater or the city’s famous Gay Village, us Mancs are waking up with sore heads a lot more than anywhere else in the North.
While the North can often be underrepresented in top 10 lists, this doesn’t seem to be the case here, as other major cities such as Liverpool, Leeds, and Sheffield have all earned their place.
UK’s top 10 most hungover cities
Birmingham
Manchester
Liverpool
Bristol
Leeds
Newcastle
Sheffield
Plymouth
Coventry
Wolverhampton
It’s all according to a new survey finding the city with the most sore heads in the country / Credit: Mylo Kaye (via Unsplash)
On the other end of the scale, Ripon has emerged as the UK’s least hungover city, closely followed by Carlisle, which means that if you’re looking for a place to escape temptation, or to just find people who actually get up early on weekends, then you know where to head to.
As well as the top 10 list, Mash Gang’s analysis data also showed just how much people are looking for hangover solutions, as in just the past month alone, there have been 178,000 searches for “hair of the dog,” and the search term “hangover food” has been looked up 72,000 times in the same period.
On top of this, searches for ‘zebra striping’ – which is a method where people alternate alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks to lessen the impact of drinking – have also increased by 424% in the past quarter.
Emily Sergeant -
17th September 2021 
