A former student from the Scottish Centre for Journalism Studies has been awarded a prize for a personal piece she wrote about the torment she suffered from a persistently barking dog.

Karrie Gillett, who now works for the Press Association, wrote an article which caught the eye of judges at the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland.

She was presented with a certificate and cheque for £125 at the REHIS annual awards ceremony at the City Chambers in Glasgow.

Each year students at the Scottish Centre for Journalism Studies, run jointly by Strathclyde and Glasgow Caledonian universities, are given the opportunity to enter a journalism competition organised by REHIS.

Articles must be relevant to environmental health. Karrie’s piece will subsequently be published in the REHIS Journal.

Karrie lived in a Glasgow flat for about three years. As a dog lover she did not wish to complain, but eventually wrote a letter and went around to see the owner.

She said of the barking dog: “When I was studying it was constant. It just got in your brain and would not get out.”

Karrie moved out to take her current position at PA in Howden, East Yorkshire, before the situation could be resolved.

She said: “It is nice to get recognition for something I felt quite strongly about. It was not difficult to write because it was quite close to me.”