Clever pup triggers alarm after owners fall – Delta Wellbeing and 11-week-old Jack Russell save woman’s life

A plucky 11‑week‑old Jack Russell puppy turned real‑life hero when she paw‑pressed a lifeline alarm after her owner suffered a serious fall at home.

The paw-some rescue attempt triggered a rapid response from Delta Wellbeing’s 24/7 monitoring centre that, together, almost certainly saved her life.

On the day of the incident, Catherine Anderson, aged 71, from Wrexham, had removed her lifeline pendant to shower and, after getting dressed, forgot to put it back on. She settled in her living room when the phone rang. As she stood to answer it, she lost her balance, fell, and struck her head on the fireplace. Unconscious and unable to call for help, Mrs Anderson lay on the floor – until Chloe leapt into action.

Amazingly, the 11‑week‑old puppy pressed the lifeline alarm unit in the living room. The call connected to Delta Wellbeing, where the adviser could hear only frantic barking and no response from Mrs Anderson. Recognising the urgency, the adviser immediately escalated the call and dispatched paramedics to the property within minutes.

Paramedics arrived to find Mrs Anderson unconscious. She was taken to hospital with concussion, a large haematoma to the head and extensive bruising.

Mrs Anderson said: “It was a miracle Chloe knew what to do. I don’t know what would have happened to me. I don’t know how long I would have been lying there or how much worse it could have got. Without Delta Wellbeing and Chloe, I don’t know what life I would have now. Help wouldn’t have come, and my injury would have been much worse.”

Recounting the incident, she said: “I had had a shower and I had taken my pendant off and left it in the bedroom, I just forgot to put it back on. I sat down in the chair in the living room and must have dozed off. My phone rang and I got up to answer it, lost balance, fell over and hit my head on the fireplace.

“I must have lost consciousness because the next thing I know is the paramedics were there asking if I was alright. I live on my own; I couldn’t understand what had happened, but they told me that Delta Wellbeing could hear the dog barking and had called them. How did she know what to do? She was only a puppy.”

Chloe is now fully registered as a support dog and is never far from Mrs Anderson’s side. She had the all-white Jack Russell puppy as an emotional support dog, after advice from her GP.

“She doesn’t take her eyes off me,” she said. “I had a sneezing fit yesterday and I could see in her face she was worried, I had to tell her, ‘I’m only sneezing, I’m okay.’”

Chloe’s heroics have even received royal recognition. Knowing Her Majesty Queen Camilla is fond of Jack Russells, Mrs Anderson wrote to share Chloe’s story and enclosed a Jack Russell brooch as a gift. She was over the moon to receive a reply – a letter from Queen Camilla thanking her for the brooch and praising Chloe as “a real star”.

Delta Wellbeing’s Manging Director Samantha Watkins said: “We’re incredibly proud of the swift actions of our monitoring adviser, and in awe of Chloe’s instinct to press the lifeline alarm. This story shows how technology can help to keep people safe at home — and why wearing your pendant matters, there’s no need to take it off to have a shower! Our 24/7 team is always here, day and night, whenever help is needed.”

Mrs Anderson has recovered well since the fall, though she continues to experience headaches and occasional nosebleeds following the injury.

She has relied on a lifeline alarm since 2019 because of long‑standing balance issues and a bad back following a horse‑riding accident years ago while training to be a professional showjumper.

Llesiant Delta Wellbeing delivers the telecare service on behalf of Wrexham County Borough Council, installing equipment and providing round‑the‑clock monitoring to help residents live independently and safely at home.

A Local Authority Trading Company owned by Carmarthenshire County Council, it specialises in assistive technology, proactive monitoring and response services to support individuals to live independently and safely at home.