Thanks to Claire Pearson, and her lovely dog Pal, had a fab time at the gorgeous surroundings of Leeds Castle in Kent on Wednesday 15th November.

 

My good pal Sheena drove me as my hand op was still healing (carpel tunnel) and we met the mayor and lady mayoress, Betsy Duncan Smith (patron) and many lovely medical detection dogs and their owners. 

Go here to see the pics from the night, on a Facebook post 

the choir sounded amazing

Founder Dr Claire Guest's explanation about these clever canines was fascinating as ever and the demo's included the latest - detecting specific bacterium on a swab. Go here to see it on the post I did on Facebook - you don't have to have a Facebook account to view it.

Claire Pearson's son gave a super account of what it was like to live with a mum who might collapse at any time, before MDD dog Pal arrived in their lives.

and claire's specialist describes his skepticism about dogs sniffing high or low blood sugar, before he encountered MDD

 

It was a super night and it was nice to catch up with so many of my MDD friends. The charity still needs much funding to continue their amazing work including into -

-prostate cancer detection

- malaria detection

- specific bacteria detection

- and parkinson's disease , early detection

and in the future even breast cancer, which ties in with Dr Claire's original experience with her dog Daisy. 'daisy's gift' is the book chronicling the events that led to a nodule of deep seated cancer being discovered in Claire's own breast and how Daisy's early detection saved Claire's life.

Much of their news is reported in the regular editions of their magazine,  'Sniff' magazine - read it all online here, including at some stage about Leeds Castle, no doubt.

Visit their site for xmas cards too - some lovely pics this year.

So proud to be involved with such an amazing charity.

Derek the Dog gets a match

At last, Derek the Dog has been matched with a diabetic owner in a new MDD partnership. Jason is a lovely chap and they are now going through their accreditation before they will be properly announced on the world. Since I donated enough funds to name a puppy, I have followed 'derek' - named after my late dad - and now two years later, he has finally attained his purpose. more soon...

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