A PHARMACIST from South Wales is helping to spread the message on how to wear a face mask correctly – by using a spaniel’s social media post.

Gwawr Davies Jones, who owns High Street Pharmacy, in Barry, was overwhelmed when a post that she created for the chemist’s Facebook page was shared almost 9,000 times, and reached more than one million people - with no sign of it slowing down.

The post shows Oakley the spaniel, who hails from Derbyshire, showing nine different ways of wearing face masks. Mrs Davies Jones said she hopes that the cute model will illustrate the many “wrong” ways in which face masks are being worn.

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She said: “I was aware of all the stress and anxiety surrounding covid.

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“A lot of our patients are shielding - thereby it can be quite lonely which could lead to depression.

“There's lots of uncertainty with a potential second wave looming so I try to look for anything that can put a smile on my patient's faces.

“I try to share or create some uplifting posts for the pharmacy as well as ones to help inform our community about health-related topics.

“As a spaniel owner myself, I follow the "spaniels rock!" Facebook page and came across this post of the beautiful Oakley, a one-year-old English springer spaniel from Derbyshire.

“It immediately made me chuckle and thought it would bring a smile to the faces of our customers.

“I adapted the post to say that we had "hired professional Trainer" to come to the pharmacy so show everyone the dos and don’ts of how to wear a face mask.

“Apparently the "shoot" only took three minutes as Oakley is such a good boy.

“It took his owner Shannah Nightingale a bit longer to put the collage together.”

She added: “Neither of us had any idea how popular this post would become.

“It has already been shared over 10,000 times by our pharmacy page alone and reached over a million people.

“I think the reason it has been shared so many times is a combination of the joy of seeing this gorgeous well-behaved model - Oakley.

“Most people are commenting on how many times they've seen people wear face masks inappropriately exactly like Oakley, and the other group of people are all shocked how they've got their lovely dog to sit there so calmly, most people comment that their dog (including my own), would just chew the mask, or rip it to shreds.

“We are happy to bring a little bit of joy to people during these crazy times.

“Who knew it would come in the form of a Springer Spaniel?”

Follow Oakley on Instagram @Oaklybear