Medical Detection Dogs

2 March 2016

On Tuesday 23 February, the State Music Room hosted a large group of Stoics and staff and four lively spaniels, as parent Lois Aspinall came to Stowe to tell us about her volunteer work with Medical Detection Dogs. This is a local charity that trains medical alert assistance dogs to support individuals with life-threatening health conditions, and cancer detection dogs that are trained to identify the odour of cancer in biological samples. Lois was joined by puppy socialiser Rachel Rice with spaniel Newton; Chloe Livesey (Third Form, Stanhope) and her spaniel Martha - a bio-detection dog who features in the current edition of Sniff magazine; and Mr Liversage with his spaniels Elsa and Lottie who are MDD ‘ambassa-dogs’.

Lois gave an enthralling talk about the life-saving work of the assistance dogs, telling us heart-warming stories of young lives that have been enriched by the presence of a trained dog whose enhanced sense of smell can detect minute changes in the patient’s complex medical condition. Lois then went on to tell us about the ground-breaking scientific work of the cancer detection dogs, their accuracy in detecting minute quantities of cancer odours in biological samples and the new NHS clinical trial, the first of its kind in the UK.

On Thursday 25 February we also held a home clothes fundraising day to support this wonderful charity.

Very many thanks to all staff and Stoics for their support.

Sheilagh Rawlins, Skills Department