She’s the new face of For the Love of Dogs, and Alison Hammond has admitted she’s been “really surprised” at how much money people leave to Battersea Dogs & Cats Home — including the late Paul O’ Grady.
Alison will take over as the show’s new presenter from Paul after he died in March 2023.
The This Morning host has now opened up on her new role as Paul’s generous last gift to the home was revealed.
It was revealed that Paul had left a huge £500,000 to the cause in his will.
Alison Hammond on For the Love of Dogs
Speaking to Best magazine, Alison said: “I tell you another thing that really surprised me, the amount of people that leave money in their wills to Battersea, because there’s no government help or anything like that, it is just literally donations and people raising money. So, they need money more than anything, all of this costs a lot. The medication the dogs need, the operations, all the staff.”
“But, on the plus side, there are so many donations and people are so generous,” Alison continued. “We’ve only just seen Paul O’Grady, how much money he’s donated to the charity. There’s a lot of people who do that who are just incredible.”
Another thing that left Alison surprised about the work at Battersea was simply “how well it works”.
She also gushed over “how much attention these dogs get and especially the medical attention”. Alison admitted she was “impressed” with the amount of “hard work that goes into getting these dogs to a stage so that they can find their forever home”.
Alison Hammond on Battersea
And discussing how she’s fallen in love with her new workplace, she continued: “Every time I know I’m going to Battersea it’s like I’m having a therapy day. It’s lovely meeting the dogs and hearing their stories.”
Alison said that sometimes “it’s hard” as the dogs face “life-changing surgeries”. However, she said seeing them “thrive afterwards” is “just incredible”.
For the Love of Dogs with Alison Hammond starts on April 16 at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know what you think of this story.