The Metropolitan Masonic Charity has donated £4,500 to support Medical Detection Dogs who’s patron is Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall. MDD is a growing charity that through painstaking research and dedication has developed techniques for training Bio-Detection dogs to use their olfactory abilities to detect from wet samples, swabs and even clothing, cancers, Malaria and Parkinson’s disease among others and the number of diseases dogs can be trained to detect is growing.

Medical Alert Assistance dogs are also trained at the charity before they go to live with and protect their owners. They regularly prevent diabetics from having hyper or hypo reactions, warn (Postural Tachycardia Syndrome), P.O.T.S. sufferers who are about to have life threatening heart palpitations to immediately rest and self-medicate and are preventing anaphylactic shock by detecting substances their owners are allergic to and preventing close contact. The incredible thing is that this is just scratching the surface of what it is possible for these dogs to detect.

How do the dogs do it? Human beings have approximately 8 million olfactory receptors in their noses and can detect about 10,000 different scents. Dogs have 300 million receptors in their nostrils and throats and their powers of smell are so acute that they can detect the equivalent presence of a teaspoonful of sugar; yes I said a teaspoonful, dissolved into the amount of water it would take to fill two Olympic size swimming pools!

MDD’s research has confirmed that all the above medical conditions and many more, carry their own pheromone markers and that dogs can be trained to detect them. All of them!

Dr. Guest Co-Founder, Chief Executive and Director of Operations commented that the donations from London Masons will help us continue our valuable research which could result in the NHS saving millions of pounds through early detection of diseases and infections.