Davies Veterinary Specialists (Davies) has raised £1,950 for Medical Detection Dogs (MDD) over the past four months and is hoping to double this figure during the second phase of fundraising for its charity of the year. Davies Oncology Specialists Mark Goodfellow and Isabelle Desmas-Bazelle presented a cheque to MDD Chief Operations Officer Dan Howard and experience socialiser Tina, accompanied by her current trainee Don Don, on Thursday 5th October at Davies’ small animal referral hospital in Higham Gobion Hertfordshire.
Each year Davies democratically chooses a charity of the year and team members collect as much cash as they can for their chosen organisation. Last year the team donated £5,500 to Target Ovarian Cancer. Since June 2017 big-hearted members of the Davies team have been busy raising money for their new chosen charity MDD.
Medical Detection Dogs www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk 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 such as 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 Isabelle Desmas-Bazelle, Oncology Specialist at Davies. 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. Isabelle’s 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.
So far the Davies Therapy and Fitness Centre has raised money by holding two Fitness, Conditioning and Injury Prevention Workshops. There has also been a splint practising session for members of the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Animal Therapy, raffles and a charity auction. Three team members also completed a triathlon. The HR Team hosted an afternoon of strawberries and cream tea plus money was raised through a Davies Summer Party.
Claire Guest, CEO of Medical Detection Dogs, commented:
“We are so grateful to Davies Vet Specialists for their generous donation. Medical Detection Dogs receives no government funding so we rely completely on organisations and individuals who dig deep for a great cause. Every penny goes towards our life saving work, both providing individuals who have life-threatening conditions with medical assistance dogs to keep them safe and our pioneering research into the early detection of diseases such as cancer and Parkinson’s.
“In short, Medical Detection Dogs has unlocked the potential of the highly developed bio sensors, who for decades have been lying peacefully by our feet, and harnessing their extraordinary sense of smell to change the course of medical history.”
Find out more at http://www.vetspecialists.co.uk
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