The Tribune

DAISY, the Labrador, received a medal and a royal pat on the head from Prince Charles last week for her uncanny ability to sniff out cancer – 551 patients in all, including that of her owner.

While the Blue Cross award was being hung from her neck in the UK ceremony, Slim, a Belgian Malinois, was sleeping peacefully in her owners’ backyard on Fox Hill Road – unaware that she too might have a rare talent.

Other than breed, there was quite a difference between the two dogs. Daisy, now ten, had been trained by her owner, Dr Claire Guest, from puppyhood to sniff out cancer in urine and breath samples of patients. Whereas Slim, only a year-and-a-half old, had no such training. In fact, her owners, Kelly and Euleta Cartwright of Kelly’s Auto, Fox Hill Road, had never heard of such canine skills. They felt that Slim was special, but not in an unusual way — she was as dear to them as their other three dogs.

Last week, the Daily Mail featured photos of Daisy and her medal, with Prince Charles patting her head, while his wife and Daisy’s owner looked on. It was explained that “dogs have an incredible sense of smell thanks to 300 million scent receptors in their noses compared to a measly five million in the human nose. Medical dogs are trained by sniffing samples of people already diagnosed with cancer and those of people without the disease so they can learn to tell the difference,” the UK newspaper reported.

“Dr Guest, 50, chief executive of charity Medical Detection Dogs, said: ‘Daisy seemed to be pawing at my chest. She bumped against my body repeatedly – I pushed her away, but she nuzzled against me again, clearly upset. She pushed me so hard that it bruised me.

“‘Her behaviour was totally out of character – she was normally such a happy dog ... I felt the tender area where she’d pushed me, and over the next few days I detected the tiniest lump. The bump was a perfectly harmless cyst. But further in the breast tissue was a deep-seated cancer’,” the paper reported.

As it was caught so early, the lump was removed before the cancer had time to spread. “‘If it wasn’t for Daisy it would have gone undetected for much longer and could have been more serious,’ Dr Guest added. ‘My own pet Labrador saved my life.’ “Animal rescue charity Blue Cross presented Daisy, of Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, with a medal for her achievements.”

In Nassau, Mr Cartwright, in a casual conversation was asked about his health after his colon cancer operation earlier this year.

He said he was doing well, paused, scratched his head, and in an almost apologetic air as though his listener might think him foolish, told the story of his Slim.

“Early in February this year,” said Mr Cartwright, “I had a terrible pain on my right side. I didn’t feel it in the day, but at night I could not sleep on my right or left side — I had to sleep on my back.”

He said one morning he went out to open the gate for the dogs. Slim ran up to him and started pushing against his right side, licking his side. He tried to push her away, but she persisted. So much so that he went to see Dr Moxey, and told him about his pain and his dog. He was examined, but nothing was found to be wrong.

However, the pain worsened and Slim kept licking. “I would push her away because I had on a white shirt and I didn’t want it dirtied.” But Slim would not listen. There was something wrong with her master’s right side, and Slim was determined to discover the problem.

“I went back to the doctor with the pain getting worse and Slim still licking. A CAT scan was ordered. Results: Nothing wrong.”

Mr Cartwright returned home. The pain worsening and Slim’s licking becoming more persistent.

“No matter which way my father turned,” said his 19-year-old son Whitney, a College of the Bahamas student studying accounting,“Slim kept moving to his right side and licking. She wouldn’t go to any other side of his body - just the right side.”

The pain got sharper and the licking more frantic. Again it was back to the doctor. It was decided that Mr Cartwright’s colon should be checked. A colonoscopy was ordered. Dr Munroe operated. Results: Cancer. The entire colon had to be removed.

“It was my dog who told me I had cancer,” said Mr Cartwright.

After the operation, Mr Cartwright had to spend three weeks in hospital. “When I got out of the car to open the gate on my return home,” said Mr Cartwright, “Slim was back, this time not to my right side, but to my stomach where the surgeon had made the incision. She kept smelling this incision until it healed. Now she doesn’t smell me anymore.”

“In England, Daisy is now helping to train a team of 12 dogs at Medical Detection Dogs and is a ‘senior consultant’ for the UK’s first trial using canines to detect breast cancer,” reports the Daily Mail.

Meanwhile, Slim is lying in the Bahamian sunshine under her favourite tree with one eye cocked on her master and his family - wife, Euleta, son, Whitney, and daughter, Kelleta, who is studying at a Texas college to be an accountant.

In addition to his family, parents and friends, Mr Cartwright said he was sincerely grateful to his doctors, Dr Munroe and Dr Moxey, and Sister Rosie Foulkes of Princess Margaret Hospital for their vital care and attention.