On February 6, 1946, Mireille Broeders is born in Ghent. Very early in life she displays artistic talents, and thanks to her encouraging mother she develops her character such that she can, so to speak, draw before she starts walking.

At age 4 she meets a black greyhound named, of all names, Black. The dog, who came from the famous Count and Countess de Robiano’s  kennel “Du Moyen Age”  is owned by friends of her grandparents. It is mutal love at first sight for Mireille and Black, and when a few years later the animal tragically loses his life Mireille is inconsolable. She never forgets him and throughout the rest of her life remains passionate about greyhounds, animals as a whole, nature, art and... fashion.  Notwithstanding a birth defect in her back and several operations, Mireille takes ballet classes, art and psychology, and in her twenties she becomes co-purchasing agent for a famous design firm in Ghent.

For well over a decade she runs a creative therapy shop for psychiatric patients and every four years she helps organize “Manual Expressions”. In the meantime she still enjoys interior decorating, painting local and international frescos and she also paints watercolors. All the while she is accompanied by her greyhounds.

Her life changes drastically after she watches a BBC report about the horrible fate of English and Irish Greyhounds, who are not valued as athletes, but after their career is over, are treated as disposables and often end up in test labs that use vivisection. She cannot believe her eyes when she sees the barbaric practices.

After the broadcast she calls one of the Greyhound Trusts interviewed in the program and finds out about the dogs that get transported to Spain to run till death. Some are sold to hunters after their prime has passed and others end up in the fishing “sport” and are used as live bait for sharks. She also finds out about the “Galgos”, Spanish Greyhounds, who are being dumped, mistreated or simply hanged after hunting season is over.

After the BBC documentary, she goes to Spain in person and her worst fears are confirmed. She acts on the English Trusts’ advice, they cannot intervene because of a quarantine law, and  Mireille starts a savings campaign in Mallorca where she repatriates more than 150 Greyhounds. Later she founds “Greyhounds in Nood Belgium”, the first organization on the continent who solely works for Spanish greyhounds.

www.greyhoundsinnood.be