As PART of the Hounds for Heroes awareness programme run by the Petersfield charity to reach out to the veterans’ community, one man and his dog visited Northern Ireland.

The charity at Ramsdean was founded by former Royal Navy officer Allen Parton after he was injured on active duty.

It provides assistance dogs for injured armed forces veterans and emergency services personnel.

The trip saw Allen and his assistance Labrador Endal 3 (ET) complete his 20th flight.

Allen said: “Despite the fact the outward flight was 6.20am from Heathrow, even the grumpiest of early morning travellers couldn’t help smiling at my enthusiastic assistance dog as he passed through check-in and airport security, giving everyone he met his usual and very genuine welcome.”

The visit involved the duo appearing on the UTV Life show and being interviewed by the show’s anchor presenter Pamela Ballantine.

Allen added: “Being able to raise awareness of the charity mission to a much wider audience is absolutely priceless, and I’m proud of how ET took to the filming in the studio.”

The packed two-day visit also involved Allen and ET giving presentations to various veteran groups around the country.

And they attended the Banbridge High School open evening. The school in County Down has been raising awareness and funds for the charity for the last 10 years, and visited Stormont, the Northern Ireland Parliament in Belfast.

The icing on the cake was a Facebook photo of Allen and ET with their British airways crew that went viral after being viewed by more than three million people and shared around the world.

Allen added: “The aim of the visit was always to raise awareness of our work; following on from the success of our Facebook post, I guess job done then.”

For more information about Hounds for Heroes visit the website at https://houndsforheroes.com/