A YORK woman says she owes her life to her best friend’s dog – after its perplexing behaviour prompted her to get a breast scan and cancer was diagnosed.

Claire Wharton, 48, of Acomb, says was being treated with antibiotics for mastitis in March last year when she went round to her friend Joanne Nicholson’s house to look after her pug, Jasmine.

She said she sat down on the sofa and the animal just jumped straight on her and then started sniffing her chest.

“She wouldn’t get down,” she said. “ She’s a well behaved dog but she just kept getting on me again and smelling my chest.

“I went home later and said to my husband: ‘Something isn’t right.’ I think I had read somewhere about dogs detecting cancer, so I went back to my doctor, and he ordered a scan.

“I had it within three weeks, and they found I had stage 4 breast cancer.”

She said her treatment had been going really well, and the oncology doctor and staff at York Hospital’s Magnolia centre had been ‘brilliant’ in their care for her.

York Press: Claire Wharton, pictured with Jasmine the pug, who she says saved her life

“But if it hadn’t been for Jasmine, I wouldn’t have known about it and the treatment would have been really delayed,” she said. “I know she has saved my life.”

Claire said her treatment came as she was working with Joanne to launch Warpaint, a unique clothing brand featured recently in The Press, which creates clothing with zips and pouches to enable people to have treatments for cancer and other illnesses without having to remove their clothes.

Zips on the neck provide access for central lines, pacemaker checks, ECGs, breast checks and a pouch at the front opens to give access to stoma bags, peg feeds and drains.

Joanne told recently how she was inspired to set up the business by her late daughter Emily’s experiences during treatment for a brain tumour, when clothing had to be removed to allow for treatment, making her feel as if all control was being taken away from her.

York Press:

Claire said she needed to have a treatment into her leg once every three weeks, and so she had designed some trousers with a zip which could be opened to allow the treatment to take place without removing her trousers.

Joanne said she had got Jasmine to help her cope with agoraphobia.

“When Emily passed away, I didn’t leave the house and was quiet ill,” she said.

“I still struggle every day with anxiety and agoraphobia but, having Jasmine by my side, I can at least get out and about.”

She said Jasmine’s behaviour with Claire had never happened before or since.

“I think she was meant to be with me and that was to keep my bestie here for a reason,” she added.