Veterinary group raises funds for Medical Detection Dogs
Socialiser Tina accompanied by current trainee Don Don, Medical Detection Dogs chief operations officer Dan Howard, Davies head of oncology Mark Goodfellow and oncology specialist Isabelle Desmas-Bazelle.
Davies Veterinary Specialists has raised £1,950 for Medical Detection Dogs over the past four months and is hoping to double this figure during the second phase of fund-raising for its charity of the year.
Medical Detection Dogs trains dogs to help people with life-threatening medical conditions and is at the forefront of the research into the fight against cancer. Bio-detection dogs are trained to detect the odour of human diseases such as cancer in samples including urine, breath and swabs. Medical alert assistance dogs are trained to detect minute changes in an individual’s personal odour triggered by their disease and alert them to an impending medical event. The charity receives no government funding for its work and relies entirely on the generosity of donations from trusts and the public.
The charity is a particular favourite with oncology specialist at Davies Isabelle Desmas-Bazelle. She is currently working on a project to find an affordable, rapid and non-invasive diagnostic test for urinary transitional cell carcinoma in dogs by training dogs to detect this cancer type in the odour of the urine. This work follows studies in human medicine where the use of detection dogs to identify bladder cancer from its odour is already paving the way for the development of an eNose’ as an inexpensive, non-invasive point-of-care diagnostic instrument.
See the full report on page 23 of the November 2017 issue of RAD Magazine.
