A friend for life and to save a life

At the end of April, four-year-old Jenna-Mae van der Vyver and her diabetic alert dog, Isla, will finally be united. For the past year, Isla has been training to be the life-saver that this little girl with Type 1 diabetes desperately needs. Speaking to the News, Cherise van der Vyver (Jenna-Mae’s mom) explained how she went from a healthy little girl to one living with a life-threatening condition.

The family believes that the diabetes was triggered when she had Covid in July 2021. She, however, was finally diagnosed later in September. Because Type 1 diabetes is not lifestyle or diet-related, being insulin-dependent will be a lifelong struggle for Jenna-Mae. Cherise explained that if Jenna-Mae’s sugar levels go too high it can damage her organs in the long run, but the more immediate danger at the moment is when her levels go too low.

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With low levels, Jenna-Mae can fall into a coma or even die and that is why it is so important she gets checked regularly. The teachers at her school have been trained to monitor her and at home, her family even sets alarms throughout the night to monitor her.

“But what happens if our phones don’t charge due to load-shedding and our alarms don’t go off to monitor her, or if we are out of our routine?” asked Cherise.

For this reason, they decided to get a diabetic-alert dog and through Backabuddy, the family managed to raise funds to buy Isla, a sighthound. Isla has been specifically trained to alert the Van der Vyvers if Jenna-Mae’s sugar levels go too low or too high. Cherise further explained that with the combination of the equipment to monitor Jenna-Mae and Isla, they will now rest easier. Isla has been training with Lucy Honey’s Guide dogs in Cape Town and the family went down there to spend some time with her in December last year. Cherise said that the two are already best friends.

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But even though the family has this reassurance, when they went to meet Isla they encountered two guest houses that did not allow Isla. Cherise said the first one simply said they did not allow pets while the second said they were at capacity with animals. Even though Cherise claimed she tried to explain that Isla is not a pet they were still not allowed to have her with them.

According to Alan Downey from Disability Info South Africa (DISA), this is an issue that people with disabilities face regularly.

Explaining that he just recently had three new complaints, one where a person was not allowed to take their service dog into a hospital, another where a person was traumatised by security, and the third where two guesthouses refused entry. He explained that service dogs or assistance dogs are used for many different reasons.

In 2015, DISA started as an information service but with time it became a non-profit company and non-profit organisation that specialises in access to information and the environment.

“Service dogs or assistance dogs are like a wheelchair. The public does not understand this is not a normal dog but more like a piece of medical equipment. “They are trained in a certain way. You won’t ask someone to leave their wheelchair at home,” he said.

Their organisation links up with diffe- rent companies and assists people to get the correct information and training. He explained that for instance in South Africa there are only five certified dog training academies for service dogs, as their training is very specialised.

They help you to get in touch with the right people. You can learn more about DISA on their website www.disabilityinfosa.co.za. As for the Van der Vyvers, they are excited and eager to have Isla join their family.