A charity which provides medical assistance dogs says it is looking for more people to come forward who might need the "life-changing" animals or who could help train them when they are puppies. How do the dogs help those that need them, and what does it mean to take one on before it meets its new owner?
Claire Moon, from Arlesey, Bedfordshire, says her assistance dog, Magic, has saved her life on countless occasions.
She has type 1 diabetes, and has been teamed with the 10-year-old dog since the golden retriever-Labrador cross was just 18 months old.
Magic is able to use his sense of smell to detect chemical changes when Mrs Moon is about to have a diabetic "episode" which could lead to her having a seizure or falling unconscious.
The 49-year-old, who works as a nurse for a private ambulance company, said: "What it means is I don't have to worry if I go to sleep [thinking] 'am I going to wake up in the morning?'
"I don't need my mum or my husband to ring me up every day to check I'm still alive.
"I know he's always there and keeping an eye on me and letting me know what's happening."
She says Magic is "not only life-changing but life-saving".
"He really has saved my life not only once or twice, but hundreds of times," she adds.
Maddy Deason lives in Thorpe le Soken, Essex, and is a volunteer for the Milton Keynes-based charity Medical Detection Dogs.
For the last four years she has looked after dogs from about eight weeks old until they are trained and ready for the person who has a medical need.
She is currently with Kenny, her third dog, and says it is "incredibly rewarding".
"It's a bit of a double-edged sword because you have to give them back but I just counteract that with knowing he's going to somebody to give them the life most of us can have but unfortunately some people can't," she says.
Ms Deason says looking after a puppy is "pretty much ongoing all the time, we take them out and every day we're doing something whether it's training or coming to puppy school".
"It's just the joy of having a pup and it encourages you do things and socialise and meet other volunteers. It's not all work - a lot of it is fun," she adds.
Sarah Backhouse-Wood, volunteer and fundraising coordinator for the East of England at the charity Medical Detection Dogs, says the animals can "work in a number of roles".
"Assistance dogs work with people that have illnesses that need alerting to an impending emergency and can go and get medication depending on the illness.
"They use the scent and their incredible sense of smell to alert them to an emergency," she says.
Although the dogs are becoming "more common", she says, the charity wants to hear from people who might need a dog or can look after a puppy.
"We're finding it really tricky at the moment and we know that some people don't even know we exist in this part of the country," she says.
Ms Backhouse-Wood says volunteers taking on a puppy need to be "at home most of the day and have a lot of free time to cope with an energetic dog that needs a lot of exercise".
She says: "It can be hard work but the hard work you put in you get back very quickly from them.
"These dogs are life-changing, before [owners] had an assistance dog they couldn't leave the house without assistance."
Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk
Training of Covid-19 detection dogs in final stage
Man, 49, reported missing from Bishop's Stortford
LA Confidential: What are police in Hollywood really like?
Three teens have their phones stolen after being approached by knife-wielding young adult
Motorcyclist in his 30s is killed in two vehicle horror smash in broad daylight
Two arrested after 19-year-old dies and another fights for their life following M25 Enfield crash
Stevenage FC: From rock bottom to top of the table - how charismatic Steve Evans turned struggling Boro into League Two leaders
Putin accuses Ukraine of Crimea bridge 'terrorism'
Who - or what - blew up the Crimean bridge?
'Russian attack' on city claimed by Moscow kills 13
Who - or what - blew up the Crimean bridge?
Why Indians are fleeing halfway around the world
Why Russia is cheering on a coup in Africa
Pacific Island Fiji aims for a high-tech future
Fishing nets being recycled to help save the sea. Video Fishing nets being recycled to help save the sea
Why raw milk cheese is banned in the US
Wildlife abandons 'Europe's Amazon' nature reserve
Twenty-four children died, one lived: 'She had no idea'
Seventeen-time toe wrestling champion retires. Video Seventeen-time toe wrestling champion retires
Why a 1922 horror film still terrifies
The kids being raised without gender
The phenomenon of eye colour change
© 2022 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.