A CLERGYMAN said that receiving visits from a pet therapy dog whilst he was in the hospice gave him an enormous amounts of pleasure.

Every Tuesday Pam Elliot from Pets As Therapy (PAT) gives up her afternoon to volunteer at the Joseph Weld Hospice with her three-year-old collie Trixie.

For the patients that can no longer keep a pet of their own the visit is one they look forward to every week.

Pam has been volunteering with the charity for 15 years and is one of four volunteers that visit the Dorchester hospice with their dogs.

She said: “I walk around the building and the patient’s eyes light up when they see Trixie coming.

“For the patients it is lovely for them to spend some time with a dog and get to pat him.”

“For me it is also rewarding – it can be very therapeutic and relaxing.”

Retired clergyman the Rev Fred Belcher spent time in the Joseph Weld Hospice earlier this year and said that the visit from a PAT dog called Pippa was ‘a happy moment that he remembers with a smile’.

“Pippa’s surprise visit and enthusiasm for being cuddled gave me enormous pleasure,” he added.

Mr Belcher moved to Charminster 24 years ago after serving in the diocese of Salisbury and before that Sherborne Abbey, where his last sermon in October was about living with cancer.

He arrived at the hospice two weeks ago seriously ill but soon recovered and is now living at a nursing home nearer his home.

He said that as a keen birdwatcher he particularly liked being able to watch the birds on the bird table outside his window.

He added that if he needs specialist care again he would like to return to the Joseph Weld Hospice because he and his wife Mary found it to be ‘full of life, kindness, caring and laughter and certainly not gloomy or full of unhappiness’.

The PAT charity started in 1983 and more than 21,000 dogs have been registered on the scheme.

There are currently 4,200 dogs and 108 cats at work around Britain visiting more than 126,000 people. Caroline Munslow, volunteer service manager at the hospice said: “For the patients having a dog there is extremely therapeutic and relaxing and it brings them some comfort.

“It is lovely to have the PAT volunteers and their dogs come in.”