Daisy's Gift

One day, while out with her dogs, Claire Guest felt a fox red Labrador called Daisy push insistently against her chest and gaze up at her with wide brown eyes. Claire took the behaviour seriously, went to see her doctor, and learned she had a rare, deep-seated form of breast cancer that was hard to identify. Daisy had effectively saved her life by detecting the disease through scent alone. Drawing on her scientific training and her lifelong affection for dogs, Claire came to believe that Daisy and other dogs could help save many more people. She founded the charity Medical Detection Dogs to make that happen. The road has not been easy, but Claire and her dogs have become a valuable tool in finding cancer, bringing hope to many seriously ill patients and their families.

This book traces that journey and asks what dogs are capable of when we work with them rather than simply live alongside them. It shows how a bond between people and animals can release life-saving abilities and, in the process, change the medical world and the lives of those who take part.