The Swedish Epilepsy Association's Gold Candle Price 2009 has been awarded
Britta Blomqvist and her epilepsy dog Atlas. The award was presented by
Birgitta Dahl in the Parliament House, for the seventh consecutive time.
Birgitta Dahl emphasized the great importance of the everyday heroes that make
life easier for others.
This time the epilepsy dog Atlas got special attention, but he was
nevertheless very concentrated on his role as a service dog. At the Gold Candle
Price award ceremony, he was constantly close to owner Britta, who received a
diploma, flowers and three thousand Swedish crowns.
Atlas
got a bone to gnaw on, in honor of the
day. However, he seemed to care more about what was happening around him.
The
jury, Gold
Candle Council, consisting of Birgitta Dahl, former
Speaker of Parliament, Peter Althin, lawyer, Barbro Beck-Friis, Professor and Chatrine
Palsson Ahlgren, chairman
of the Swedish Epilepsy Association,
gave the following motivation for its decision:
"The epilepsy dog Atlas and
his owner Britta Blomqvist was awarded the 2009 Gold Candle Price for jointly
having demonstrated an alternative way of achieving greater security and safety for people with
epilepsy. Using the dog in the service of man in this way, increases the
potential for independency and a good quality of life ".
Britta Blomqvist, who
has severe epilepsy, runs a kennel and
discovered that her dogs behavior
changed before she had an epileptic
seizure. Today she has considerable
support in Europe's first epileptic
dog Atlas, who
warns Britta when a seizure is on its way, by looking deep into her eyes and scratching on her. It
is Atlas way of telling that she will soon have
a seizure, long before she
notices it herself.
- That dog is man's best friend
can certainly be said when you get help to get to safety when a seizure is on
its way. The security a trained epilepsy dog can give is really important, to
increase the freedom for individuals with epileptic seizures, says Chatrine
Palsson Ahlgren, chairman
of the Swedish Epilepsy Association.
Atlas
is a
long haired collie trained
by Britta and an
SOS dog trainer
and graduated by
the Service and Signal Dog Association and
has the same status as a guide dog. He can go with Britta
Blomqvist everywhere, which means that life for Britta is not limited by her epilepsy.
It says Service Dog, on the cover
Atlas carries on his back. There is also an alarm that goes to Brittas husband
if she has an attack.
- He means a change of my life. I even go to the store and buy food, which I
did not do before, says Britta Blomqvist.
Epilepsy 4 2009
[Translated by Elisabeth Magnusson Rune]
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