EARLY FEBRUARY
WHILE the pups are growing more adventurous, 100 miles away in Buckinghamshire, tragedy has struck. Scientist and animal behaviour expert Dr Claire Guest, co-founder of ten-year-old charity Medical Detection Dogs, has been left devastated by the loss of Daisy, her 13-year-old Labrador. ‘Daisy was instrumental in my starting the charity,’ says Claire (pictured right with Daisy). ‘She was my dog who I trained to detect bladder cancer in urine samples and later to find prostate cancer.’ Incredibly, Daisy even saved Claire’s life — sniffing out that she had breast cancer. Nine years ago Daisy started acting warily around Claire before repeatedly nudging her nose into her chest, alerting her to a lump in her breast. It turned out to be a cancerous tumour, which was successfully treated. Tragically, it was cancer that cost Daisy her life. ‘She passed away very suddenly,’ says Claire. ‘She was incredibly fit and didn’t look ill. Her death has left me distraught.’