Author: Ashleigh Fielding

PHOENIX the dog has been more than just a cute and cuddly companion for nine-year-old Albany girl Mabel Dines.

The diabetic alert dog has saved his young owner’s life more than a dozen times since finding his new home with Mabel three months ago.

Following her Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis in September last year, Mabel is now insulin dependent and requires constant monitoring, with a glucose monitor implant and finger prick testing conducted at least four times during the day, and up to five times during the night.

Mabel’s mum Alison Norman told The Weekender she had no idea her daughter had diabetes, with no family history suggesting otherwise.

“It was a complete mystery,” she said.

“Mabel was ravenous, excessively thirsty, she’d wake up four or five times in the night to go to the toilet and drink a litre of water each time she got up…and she lost weight.

“She’s already so thin, and she lost about 5kg in a week.”

While on their way home after a visit to the GP and hospital blood tests, Ms Norman said she was immediately told to turn around and head back to the hospital, as a Royal Flying Doctor Service plane was awaiting her and Mabel.

Mabel was then transferred to Princess Margaret Hospital in Perth for a 10-night stay where she received her diabetes diagnosis.

“It was really traumatic for my little girl,” Ms Norman said.

“She’s hyper sensory and has autistic tendencies, and she had to take in a lot of information… there were lots of needles and bright lights in her face.

“She’s a trooper.”

Ms Norman said it was when she sat vigil at Mabel’s hospital bedside that she learned about diabetic alert dogs.

The dogs are trained to recognise the scent of a diabetic’s saliva and alert them when their blood sugar level is too low or high.

Purchasing a trained pooch from the United States or across the other side of Australia was going to cost Ms Norman more than $50,000, so she was relieved to find a more affordable breeder closer to home.

“I found a diabetic lady in Busselton who trained her own,” she said.

“She had been imprinting them with her low blood sugar saliva… she put her life on hold for three months to train her dog from when it was two-hours old.”

Ms Norman said that’s when Phoenix came into her and Mabel’s life, with the price tag of $10,000, just over three months ago.

“He saved Mabel’s life on his first day of duty within two hours,” she said.

“And he has done so more than a dozen times since.

“When we first got him, Mabel was playing with him, and at the time, according to her implant, I knew Mabel was sitting at about five [blood sugar level] and she has to stay between four and eight.

“I could hear her saying, ‘come on Phoenix, let’s play, don’t jump on me…Mum, I think he’s alerting me’.

“So, I asked Phoenix what the matter was, and he banged my knee and banged Mabel’s knee and sat in front of her and didn’t move.

“I tested her blood sugar level and she had dropped down to 3.8.”

Ms Norman said she has started a Gofundme page to help pay the bill for Phoenix, who still requires constant daily training.

She said she is incredibly thankful to those who have donated just over $2000 so far, and would be grateful for any other fundraising suggestions.

If you wish to donate to help pay for Phoenix or have a fundraising opportunity available, visit au.gofundme.com/diabetic-alert-dog-for-mabel-jayne.

SEVEN-year-old Ruby Robertson will be laid to rest on Monday after losing a life-long battle with illness.

The avid Wiggles fan was diagnosed with Dandy-Walker Syndrome and epilepsy after undergoing surgery for a disconnected and twisted bowel at two years of age, but never let her health issues slow her down until the very end.

In a difficult text message to send, The Weekender contacted Ruby’s mum Tamara Drew to extend condolences to her family and to share her memories, having first met Ruby a year ago.

Despite her grief, Ms Drew obliged.

“Ruby was full of courage, strength and sheer determination,” she replied.

“She loved her life, her school, her family and the Wiggles very much.

“Finding joy was always on the top of her list.

“We feel privileged to have walked beside her along this journey.”

A post on the Team Ruby Facebook page made a simple request for friends and family for a play and a party at Eyre Park on Monday following the service at Amity Rose Funeral Home.

“Please, request the day off, keep your kids home from school, chuck a sickie – whatever it takes,” dad James Robertson posted.

“We want as many people as possible to help us celebrate and remember this girl’s incredible life.

“We want this town to grind to a halt as we pay tribute to this most incredible child, and bask in the glorious light that she shines upon us all.

“Ruby would not have wanted it any other way.”

Ms Drew said the family was grateful for the love and support they had received from the community.

Weekender readers first met Ruby this time last year (‘Making the mis- sion easier’, 19 October 2017) when her family reciprocated support from Ronald McDonald House, which had assisted with the countless stays in Perth for medical appointments.

Ms Drew described Ruby as “an absolute battler” who “just loves her life”.

“The way she lives is just beautiful,” she said.

The family said there will be the opportunity to donate to several charities and organisations that have helped them along the way at Monday’s service.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA’S oldest working relationship between a sitting mayor or shire president and current CEO comes to an end tomorrow in the Great Southern town of Woodanilling.

Belinda Knight commenced as CEO of Woodanilling Shire in August 2001 and in the 17 years since has only ever worked with one shire president, Russel Thomson.

“I started here only three weeks before the planes flew into the twin towers in America,” Ms Knight said in a stark reminder of the passage of time.

“I’ve now been the longest continually serving president at the Shire of Woodanilling since it started in 1906.

“That’s something I’m pretty proud of.”

Her last day at the Shire, and the last day of her executive partnership with Cr Thomson, is tomorrow.

Exhaustive Weekender analysis reveals the partnership to be the longest currently existing between a CEO and shire president, or mayor, across all of the state’s 139 local governments.

“I’ve got a few more years to go until I retire but I just wanted a little bit less pressure as I wind down towards that,” Ms Knight confided.

“I’m going over to Lake Grace as Deputy CEO.”

She said there had “not been a moment” she had regretted at the Shire.

“Woodanilling turned my life around,” she added.

“My family, even as a child, my parents were pretty much the same; we moved every two or three years.

“I found that very hard to stop doing until I came to Woodanilling and suddenly, 17 years later I’m still here and I’ll really miss the place.”

She considered her greatest achievements to be a rebuild of the Shire office facade, and completion in recent years of seven units for older people.

“We have seven beautiful people living in them who love their units and have formed their own little community,” she said of the units located in Woodanilling town.

“They are all people who have come here from outside the shire, and had a connection and wanted to come back.”

Remarkably, Cr Thomson has been on the council since 1982 and Shire President since 1995. He said Ms Knight had “achieved a hell of a lot” for Woodanilling.

“From my point of view, it’s been a great relation- ship, and I’m sad to see it change,” he expanded.

“Belinda brought a huge amount of passion to the job.

“Woodanilling has been her home and when it’s your home you put all your effort into it.”

He said Ms Knight had done everything in her power to make the shire a better place.

“It’s a huge job in there, running a small shire,” he explained.

“At a larger place, the CEO says: ‘Look, Bill, just do that report up for me, will you? And I’d like it tomorrow night’.

“Well, at Woodanilling, hello, that’s the CEO’s job.”

Tomorrow is Ms Knight’s last day working at the Shire.

She’s racked up a big chunk of leave, and says she’ll take it until December 31.

Sean Fletcher, who also quite remarkably has filled CEO roles at the shires of Carnamah, Lake Grace, Morawa, Sandstone and Wyalkatchem, will act as Woodanilling CEO until the job is filled.

The position has been advertised on a three-to-five-year contract with a remuneration package of $126,956 to $198,210.

IT’S not every day a bride leaves organising her wedding dress until three months before her wedding.

But Albany’s Alicia Sims knew her mum Zoe Masters had the crocheting skills to pull off such a feat.

Ms Masters spent more than 1000 hours over three months crocheting a white sheath silhouette gown with “Cadbury purple” and lavender detailing, based on dimensions her daughter took herself and sent via text message, and on a loose pattern with “really badly translated Russian instructions”.

After agonising over it for so long, Ms Masters said she was nervous to see her daughter’s and family’s reactions to the dress on the big day.

“She was changing her mind about the pattern for about two weeks,” Ms Masters said.

“I said, ‘you need to make up your mind!’

“We had the first and only fitting about three weeks before the wedding, as I was living in Perth at the time, and that was only the top half of the dress…it was finished the night before the wedding.”

Ms Masters said both she, her daughter and her mother burst into tears when Ms Sims tried on the completed gown for the first time.

“It was a perfect fit,” she reminisced.

“Dan [fiancée] said he nearly cried when he saw her…he said his heart melted.”

When asked whether her daughter had a back-up plan should the dress not come together in time, Ms Masters laughed.

“Nope!” she said.

“That’s faith for ya!”

Ms Masters said her daughter loved her gown so much, it went along with her to a heavy metal music concert.

“Her and Dan skipped out on the reception early to go to a Disturbed concert,” she said.

“I said, ‘don’t you tear that dress!’”

The dress made its first public appearance outside of Ms Sim’s wedding at the Wedding and Event Gala Day at Elliot House earlier this month.

Ms Masters said the dress caught a few people’s eyes and attracted potential future clientele.

“My fingers have been itching to make another one,” she admitted.

“Because everything I make is a one-of-a-kind custom.

“If you are wearing something made by me, you can guarantee no one else will be wearing the same.”