Medical Detection Dogs Lifeline

For some people, like Archie,

a medical emergency is only ever minutes away.

He's eight and has a severe form of diabetes.

Soon after he was born, his blood sugar levels started to spike

and drop with no warning symptoms.

Anything could happen at any time and within seconds.

It wasn't even minutes.

Either one of us would stay up all night,

or we would both take it in shifts

so that we'd be checking him every hour.

We would go to sleep and it would be the morning

and we would be too scared to go into his bedroom

because of the fear that he may not be alive.

Archie's family was almost at breaking point

when they found a charity that changed their lives

by giving them a very surprising way

to monitor his blood sugar levels.

The solution was a dog.

Now, dogs have an astonishing sense of smell -

around 100,000 times stronger than our own - and this charity,

Medical Detection Dogs, have harnessed that extraordinary ability

and trained dogs to alert people to changes in their medical condition.

This is Domino.

He's been with Archie's family for over a year

and takes some of the stress out of their lives

by checking on Archie's sugar levels.

When he jumped up at Mum, it was a sign of an alert,

so what I'm going to do now is I'm going to prick...

Domino will sleep beside Archie by his bed

and if Archie's actually going out of his blood sugar range,

Domino wakes us up to actually check Archie.

I'm not sure where we'd be without Medical Detection Dogs right now.

Our little boy went from not wanting to talk to anybody

to going to all sorts of different after-school clubs,

running around being a little cheeky monster.

Archie feels he actually is normal now and I couldn't give that to him

and I so wanted to, but they did.

This is the Medical Detection Dogs office.

I think it's my favourite office in the country

and I think there are more dogs that work here than people.

Now, the charity have managed to place over 60 dogs

with people with chronic conditions all over the country,

but that's not all they do, and if you donate,

you will be helping to fund some pioneering research,

because what they've discovered is that these dogs are able

to pick up on conditions that haven't yet been diagnosed.

Working with a local hospital, the charity is training dogs

to sniff out urine samples positive for prostate cancer.

Indication?

-Correct.

-Isn't that just extraordinary?

When I first came here last year to see these dogs working,

I was amazed by how quickly and accurately

they can pick up a positive sample.

Well done, Kiwi!

Prostate cancer detection rates have trebled since 1980,

partly due to a widely-used blood test that diagnoses the disease.

However, this test sometimes falsely raises suspicion of cancer

where there is none, leading to unnecessary invasive biopsies

and it can also miss some aggressive cancers.

Prostate cancer still claims the lives of 11,000 people a year.

Iqbal Anjum is a consultant neurologist.

His research team is collaborating with Medical Detection Dogs

on a study aimed at developing a new way of testing for the disease.

Phase one is proving that dogs can do it with good confidence level.

In 96% of patients where there is cancer, they pick up the cancer.

This is the excitement.

That information can be utilised in future

to isolate special chemicals which can be globally used

to diagnose and facilitate prostate cancer treatment.

The ideal testing system would be like a pregnancy test.

If we were to develop such a simple, non-invasive test

which was less time consuming, that would simply be perfect.

This ground-breaking research relies entirely

on the charity's 15 detection dogs.

They don't live at the training centre.

Instead, they have homes to go back to.

Pauline runs a local garden centre and fosters Kiwi.

I wanted to know what goes into looking after a detection dog.

-Sit down.

-Oh, she's beautifully behaved, Pauline.

-Settle, settle.

So, how did you first come across Medical Detection Dogs?

Well, I'd just got over cancer treatment myself

and there's an article in our local paper

from Medical Detection Dogs wanting volunteers.

We came up to their open day and we said, "We've got to help."

This is an incredible charity,

so for the last three and a half years,

I've been helping out doing fostering work.

Do you think she enjoys this life, enjoys the work?

I'm sure she must do, because when we come in in the morning,

in she goes, tail wagging, and it's like having a child,

like doing the school run with the dog.

Kiwi's work is helping to improve

the accuracy of prostate cancer diagnosis

and could reduce the amount of avoidable invasive testing.

47-year-old Lee has volunteered to help with the charity's work, too.

My dad, who was 82 at the time,

was tested positive for prostate cancer,

which prompted me and my brothers to have a blood test.

My brother and I were both found to be positive.

We thought, "Oh, well."

The next stage of the full diagnosis was a prostate biopsy.

It is very unpleasant,

something that I definitely don't want to do again.

Before starting treatment, Lee got in touch with the charity

and offered a urine sample known to be positive for prostate cancer.

The mere thought of being able to let other people

have early diagnoses in the future is a fantastic thing

and I'm really glad I could contribute something towards that,

however small.

If it's successful, the research using these cancer detection dogs

will mean more reliable testing and that will save thousands of lives.

But the charity does need your support to continue training

these miraculous dogs and exploring new ways of detecting disease,

and not just prostate cancer.

The charity is looking into how dogs can detect breast cancer

and is also researching Parkinson's disease.

Now, dog owners like me know

what loyal and wonderful companions they are,

but these dogs are so much more.

Whilst I've had Domino,

he's been a life-saver, really.

Although he looks much like a normal dog, he just isn't.

These dogs, this charity are doing something extraordinary -

pioneering work that changes lives like Archie's,

but could also save lives, too.

But the research and the training of dogs like Daisy doesn't come cheap

and you could make all the difference.

So, go on, dig behind your sofa cushions, raid the piggy bank,

reach for the credit card and give what you can

to Medical Detection Dogs and I promise you, every penny you donate

will be very, very well spent indeed.

Won't it, Daisy?

To give by phone, call...

Calls are free from mobiles and landlines.

Texts cost £10 plus your standard network message charge

and the whole £10 goes to Medical Detection Dogs.

For full terms and conditions or to make a donation online,

visit the Lifeline website.

Or if you'd like to post a donation,

please make your cheque payable

to Medical Detection Dogs

and send it to...

..writing Medical Detection Dogs

on the back of the envelope.

Thank you.