The June meeting started on a somber note as members held a One Minute Silence for Federation President Johanna Raffen who died on 14th June. The club welcomed a visiting Soroptimist, Maureen Thompson , who is moving into the area.
Baiju McGubbins then provided a most fascinating talk illustrated with videos regarding the work of Medical Detection Dogs.
Medical Detection Dogs use the amazing power of the dog’s nose to detect human diseases and research is based on the dog’s ability to detect minute odour traces created by diseases. Dogs are trained to recognise specific illnesses such as prostate cancer but amazingly they can also be trained to know for instance when a human with type 1 diabetes might lapse into a coma whilst sleeping and take action. Whilst in the past there was anecdotal evidence of the ability of animals to be alert to an owner’s cancer, the charity Medical Detection Dogs has actually worked to prove this scientifically. Recently a project has been undertaken with government support to assess when someone has Covid. This work is showing very good results and it is hoped that it will prove a further fast method of checking whether or not a person is Covid positive – read more about it here – https://www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/covid-19-detection-dogs/