"Very Emotional Moment": Hospice Patient's Final Wish Fulfilled As Ponies Visit Bedside

An emotional story of an elderly woman is going viral on social media after her final wish was fulfilled when two ponies walked up to her bedside at a hospice centre. According to the BBC, the woman, Denise Lee from Ashington, West Sussex, had loved horses since childhood and volunteered with the Riding for the Disabled Association. Due to her terminal cancer diagnosis, she was unable to ride, but her passion for horses never faded. In the final days of her life, all she wanted was to smell and feel the presence of horses one last time.

To make it happen, the hospice staff at St Barnabas House in Worthing, England, and volunteers coordinated with local handlers to bring two ponies directly to her side. According to local reports, arrangements were made to ensure the visit was safe for both the patient and the animals.

It was made possible after Joanne, Denise's daughter, appealed for help through local Facebook community groups. "She was a horse lover from, I think, the age of like five or six," Joanne Mullarkey said, as quoted by the media outlet.

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"She loved all animals, but horses were really special to her. So she rode throughout her whole life."

The post reached a local horse owner, Kerry Saunders, who offered to bring two ponies to the care centre for a visit. 

When the ponies arrived, caretakers watched as the woman became visibly animated. 

As the animals lowered their heads near her bed, she reached out to pet them, taking in the "horsey smell" that she had wished for. 

Family members and healthcare workers present described the reunion as 'deeply moving', noting the powerful effect animals can have on human emotional well-being.

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"At our hospices, we ask patients 'What matters to you today?' In this way, we can focus on those things right at the front of their mind that day, and it can be something as simple as spending time with a loved one, getting outdoors, or listening to their favourite music," St. Barnabas healthcare assistant Claire Wiggins told PEOPLE Magazine.

"When I asked Denise what mattered to her, she told me she just wanted to see a horse, one more time; she wanted to feel its breath on her hand. So, I spoke with her family, and we made a few calls together, put a shout-out on Facebook, and the amazing Kerry stepped forward with the offer of bringing her two ponies into the hospice for a visit," she continued.

"Denise was just so delighted. It was a very emotional moment; we all cried. But I'm just so happy that we were able to help fulfil Denise's last wish and for her family to have these precious memories with their mum,” Wiggins added.

Her daughter later shared a post on Facebook, revealing that her mother died "peacefully" shortly after the visit with the ponies.

"It was perfect, mum cried, we cried, the nurses cried!" she wrote in the post. "Mum died peacefully 36 hours later but I'm so very grateful she got to experience something so meaningful in the last day that she was properly conscious. I cannot thank them enough."