TARA Louise Wilcox is a talented cake artist whose life was changed forever by her dog Saffyre.

Tara got her dog Saffyre in 2012.

A year earlier in 2011 Tara suffered an illness which devastated her life. She ended up using a wheelchair and her weight plummeted to five and half stone.

Tara bakes beautiful cakes and spends her time running an organisation called Northern Howls which raises money for sled dogs and wolves in the UK and abroad.

Tara said: “She literally saved my life as I was - as the doctors put it dying.

“ I had round the clock care back then but Saffyre gave me everything I needed to fight and live with the symptoms I’m left with today.

“I weighed 5 and a half stone Saffyre came into my life and gave me strength a new focus and we became 1 and slowly I became stronger and we started our baking journey together”

“Saffyre sadly passed suddenly in November 2018.”

Tara has since adopted two new dogs – Kibou and Freedom.

“We rescued Kibou in 2019 nine months later and the accident to my hand happened while on a forest holiday two years ago with Kibou. I had surgery a year ago this February The NHS wouldn’t operate on my hand so I had to pay privately to get it fixed as best it could be.”

Tara, who lives in Upton but is originally from Ledbury set up Northern Howls a charitable organisation dedicated to raises funds for sled dogs & Wolves in rescues across the UK & abroad.

Tara has won various awards for her stunning cake designs and now bakes purely for pleasure.

Northern Howls can be found on Facebook.