A dedicated volunteer who has helped to rehome almost 100 dogs hopes to keep up her efforts for many more years.

Every Wednesday and Saturday Joan Perry, 83, makes a 36 mile round trip from her home in Links Road, Bradwell, to collect one of the dogs from Danaher Animal Home in Wethersfield and head to Braintree town centre.

She began volunteering in 2003 and since then 94 of the 98 dogs she has walked have been rehomed.

She has kept a record of the names of the all the dogs and like to keep track of how they are getting on.

The great grandmother, who is less than 5ft tall, is often seen walking Staffordshire Bull Terriers in the hope of dispelling any fears about the breed.

She said: “I take the dogs in with their “adopt me” jackets on as it gets everybody interested, you tend to think everybody knows about Danaher but not everybody does.

“It is certainly interesting for the dogs and some of them have terribly sad stories, some have just been abandoned and some have been brought in as cruelty cases, so we try and find homes for them.

“It is very important, I have always been an animal lover, I love all animals but dogs in particular and I always used to have dogs.”