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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BBC issues statement after UK forecast shows ‘hurricane force winds’ up to 14,000mph
Daisy Jackson
The BBC has issued a statement after alarming people across the UK with a weather forecast of hurricane force winds and temperatures of up to 400°C.
Mancs woke up this morning stunned to see predicted wind speeds of up to 14,000mph.
The alarming weather report hit the BBC Weather app today while Hurricane Milton batters Florida across the pond.
One person shared on X: “I guess we need to batten down the hatches with 26,898 mph winds today.”
Another asked: “Why isn’t this forecast making the news? 14,712mph wind sounds dangerous to me!! I’m going back to bed.”
But now the BBC has rushed to reassure people not to be ‘alarmed’ at the prospect of the entire island blowing away.
BBC presenter and meteorologist Simon King shared: “Oops, don’t be alarmed by some of our @bbcweather app data this morning.
— Barefoot Spooky Bartender 👣💀🍹 (@barefoottiki) October 10, 2024
“Be assured there won’t be 14408mph winds, hurricane force winds or overnight temperatures of 404°C.
“It is being looked at and hopefully sorted asap.”
BBC Weather shared: “You may have noticed some data issues on our app and website. We are working hard to fix it quickly. Sorry – please bear with us.
“In the meantime here are Thursday’s weather headlines: -Colder, clearer air moving in -Rain and drizzle in south -Blustery showers near east coast”
And national treasure Carol Kirkwood said live on air: “We are having a technical glitch at the moment. It’s showing wind speeds far too fast, in fact, hurricane strength and that is not the case at all.
“Please don’t be alarmed. We are aware of it and on it.”
At the time of writing, the BBC Weather forecast service is still predicting hurricane force winds for the UK. Eek.
BBC issues statement after UK forecast shows ‘hurricane force winds’ up to 14,000mph
Liam Gallagher says Oasis reunion rehearsals have begun after blatant hints at tour support acts
Danny Jones
Liam Gallagher has confirmed that rehearsals for the Oasis reunion are now underway and has been teasing the acts that could be supporting them on the tour.
The incomparable frontman has been very vocal on social media (more so than usual) ever since the talk of their comeback was actually confirmed to be real, though we’ll admit we’re still having to pinch ourselves every few days.
Nevertheless, the Oasis reunion IS happening, the tickets have gone and even a slate of North American dates have now sold out along with an Australian tour set to do exactly the same – though there has been some furore over price differences.
Although the gigs are still a little ways away, practice for summer 2025 has to start sometime and after a fan asked Gallagher a point-blank question online, he had a simple but exciting answer.
The idea of the two actually being back in the same room still feels so surreal but we’re SO glad they are.
After the pair were first snapped posing for the reunion press shots by photographer Simon Emmett, it sounds like the two are not just in each other company but now practising those songs they first played together some 20-30 years ago.
The Britpop icons and legendary rock band also announced a new special collection of the seven-inch Definitely Maybe single pressings to celebrate the 30th anniversary of ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’; there are only 4000 up for grabs and they come in the actual 1996 cigarette-style CD (vinyl) box.
After rehearsals are all said and done, one thing that we still don’t know for sure is who will be supporting Oasis on their reunion tour, but that hasn’t stopped the 52-year-old from having fun with some rather heavy hints.
We don’t know how blatant or serious any of these names are, or if this is just a clever red herring or two, but let’s just say we’d be happy with any of them.
Liam is very much enjoying the usual wind-up and toying with Oasis fans.
As well as Manic Street Preachers and Cast – the lattermost having already supported Liam on his Definitely Maybe anniversary tour – there seems to be a lot of debate around whether a potential Richard Ashcroft support would include the rest of The Verve, who haven’t played together since 2017.
That being said, Blossoms have been heavily linked with the tour since they were the band to break the first reunion teaser at their massive Wythenshawe Park gig; there have also been rumblings of Kasabian, The K’s, New Order, Gene Gallagher’s band Villanelle and many more.
Again, we’ve got nothing concrete yet so you’ll just have to take LG at his word – just do so with a big fistful of salt.
Right, we’ll give you three support slots: who would be your dream warm-up acts for the Oasis reunion?
Emily Sergeant -
17th September 2021 
