As an animal lover I was delighted to be joined by some four-legged friends in Parliament this week. The occasion was a reception for the Medical Detection Dogs, a registered charity which uses dogs to detect human diseases including cancer and diabetes.
The journey began in 2004 when a scientific investigation published in the British Medical Journal demonstrated the detection of bladder cancer using dogs to screen urine samples. The charity itself was then established in 2008 following this research and ever since they have been aiming for the detection of human diseases by dogs to become available nationally on the NHS as an additional detection service, producing a reliable result without undergoing invasive and painful tests.
We were able to witness some of the cancer detection dogs in action as they managed to successfully identify the one positive sample of prostate cancer amongst a number of negative samples. Apparently the equivalent for us would be trying to detect a teaspoon of sugar in a volume of tea equating to two Olympic sized swimming pools! Presented with eight samples, Midas the dog set about sniffing each one looking for any that contained the odour of cancer. Midas stopped and sat by the positive sample to indicate the cancer, and walked away from the samples completely when there were no positives, thus minimising the risk of any false positives. This process takes under 10 seconds!
We then met Archie, an inspirational 5 year old with severe Diabetes and his Diabetes detection dog Domino. Archie’s condition meant frequent stays in hospital throughout the early stages of his life and fear that he could lapse into a coma at any point. For years, his parents would take it in turns to wake up every hour in order to check his blood sugar levels, as there are never any warning signs when a hypo or hyper is about to occur. Thanks to the charity, Archie was paired with Domino, the golden Labrador that alerts his parents whenever his blood sugar levels have plummeted. Something that actually occurred mid-way through Archie’s mum’s speech! Domino has well and truly changed Archie and his family’s life, giving them much more freedom and preventing any emergency trips to the hospital.
As you can probably tell I was rather taken with this amazing charity. So much so that I am visiting their HQ in March to hear more about how they are transforming lives. After supporting the work of the Guide Dogs for a number of years, visiting the training site for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and now seeing the incredible work of the Medical Detection Dogs; it is amazing just how much we depend on our canine friends to overcome the different challenges that we often have to face.
