Sponsored by
Shot police officer gets married
A police dog handler who was shot in an armed raid on a South Ribble pub has got married.
Katie Johnson tied the knot with her partner of six years Ian Jones, a fellow dog handler, in a touching ceremony flanked by their pet Labradors Max and Charlie, who wore specially made tuxedos.
Courageous Katie, 30, feared she would die or lose her leg after being hit at close range in the thigh as armed robbers fled the Hospital Inn in Bamber Bridge in a bungled raid on New Year's Eve, 2007.
She still has 10 of the 12 gun pellets lodged in her leg and has developed complex pain syndrome, for which she needs constant medication.
But she returned to work just six weeks after the ordeal and is now back on duty as a dog handler for the force and fulfilling her role as an ambassador for charity Hounds for Heroes.
The bride wore a dazzling white dress for the ceremony at Briers Hall Hotel in Burscough.
she said: "When something like that happens to you it brings home how precious life is and makes you want to do things now rather than wait."
The couple wed four months after Ian proposed to her in picturesque Ambleside in the Lake District. They live in Ormskirk with their eight dogs – Max and Charlie, Katie's working dogs Hiro and Chesney, Ian's police dogs Shadow, Scar and Leo and her stepdaughter's Jack Russell, Bell.
Katie was on one of her first jobs as a dog handler with six-year-old canine partner,
Chaos, when she was wounded.
During her recuperation she read a book by the founder of Hounds for Heroes, a charity which provides assistance dogs to injured emergency service and armed forces workers.
She decided to become an ambassador for the charity and help raise 100,000 needed to train five new dogs.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Leyland
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South west
