A Message From Karen Barlow

Unfortunately, at our recent Championship show, our scheduled dog judge Karen Barlow had to withdraw from the appointment at short notice due to ill health. Jane Davison very kindly stepped in to fill the role and the committee are very grateful to her for accepting the appointment at such short notice. Whilst I apologised to the exhibitors on the day, we hope you appreciate that these things can and do happen and that Karen was so looking forward to coming over from France to judge for us and would have done anything to be with us. I know that some of you couldn't quite hear me on the day so below is the note Karen sent to me that I read out before judging commenced:

"After two years of eagerly awaiting my Championship Show Judging appointment with The BDDC; I am totally gutted at such a late stage & so close to the show to have the opportunity stolen from me due to health problems"

"This is the first time EVER in my Judging Career I have been unable to fulfill my obligation and I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart, all the Exhibitors who entered their dogs under me; thank you so much, and to apologise for a situation completely out of my control. I hope you will all still enjoy your day, Good Luck, I wanted SO much to be there with you all. Karen"

Karen received a lovely round of applause after I'd finished reading this out; thank you to everyone for their well wishes for her and for sportingly accepting Jane to step into Karens' shoes.