Merenia Donne knows better than most just how helpful dogs can be when it comes to saving human lives.
She probably would not be alive if her German shepherd Nikki had not pulled her from a car wreck 18 years ago.
Nikki died of untreatable bone cancer some years later and Wanganui's Ms Donne started the Kotuku Foundation - Animals Assist Aotearoa, in her memory, in 2006.
Nominated for a Pride of New Zealand community spirit award, the foundation trains dogs to help people with medical conditions such as diabetes, cardiac and neurological conditions, anaphylaxis and narcolepsy.
With minimal funding and a lot of voluntary help - the foundation has voluntary assistance dogs working around the country, including Taranaki-based Molly.