Going the extra mile

How John Herbert enjoys enriching his client’s life

Once a week, volunteer John Herbert of Waldingfield near Sudbury takes his dog Peggy to a care home to visit Tony, who has mobility problems and is sometimes forgetful. Usually, OSF volunteers spend about an hour with a client, but John and Tony have forged a real friendship, and the hour has become a morning. John takes Tony on an outing each time, to local garden centres for a coffee, an antiques centre, or to a motorcycle enthusiasts’ café. All with Peggy in tow, and when they return to the home, she bounds into the lounge where the other residents welcome her company.

John became a volunteer in 2024, when a chance encounter with a young autistic man in a garden centre café revealed Peggy’s empathy with people living with mental or physical limitations. Lying next to John, she crept towards the young man, laid her chin on his knee and allowed him to stroke her. The carer said she had never seen him react like that and asked John if he could stay a little longer, which he did.

When John got home, Peggy’s behaviour prompted him to look for an Our Special Friends card he had once picked up at an event, correctly believing that she would make a suitable AAA dog. Soon after he and Peggy were approved to visit clients, he was matched with Tony.

“Volunteering has given me a new interest in retirement,” said John, an engineer who still spends a day or two a week restoring classic cars and motorcycles. In his career, he has worked on a wide variety of vehicles from lorries and trucks to Ferraris and Porsches. He and Tony share an interest in motorcycles, and also memories of where they both lived in south London at much the same time, Tony only being four years older.

The outings also enrich the life of Peggy, a rescue from North Yorkshire who came to John and his wife as a malnourished, nervous dog. The couple have always had dogs but despite their experience were turned down by rescue centres when they wanted one after their previous dog died – sadly a common response to older applicants. “The Dogs’ Trust told us we were 1000^thon their list!”