Queen says Clarence House becoming cancer-detecting dogs’ ‘second home’

The Queen has said Clarence House is “becoming a second home” for cancer-detecting dogs after she was greeted by two pooches trained in the skill.

Camilla walked down the stairs to pat the heads of golden Labrador Jodie and fox red Labrador Floren in the royal residence’s hallway on Tuesday morning.

Floren, 11, has been trained to detect prostate cancer while Jodie, nine, can pick up the disease in the bowel.

Camilla meets Floren the fox red Labrador (Aaron Chown/PA)PA Wire/PA Images - Aaron Chown

The Queen, patron of the Medical Detection Dogs charity since 2014, smiled as Jodie showed off her skills by spotting the disease among four urine samples.

Camilla was also shown an “electronic nose” developed to replicate the animals’ diagnostic abilities, though she said “nature will always lead the way” and “we’re always going to need the dogs”.

After the demonstration and speeches, Camilla requested the canines be brought back to Clarence House soon and said: “I think it’s becoming a second home for the dogs.

“We’ve had so many people here, and a lot of sceptical people who come and have gone away transformed.”

Bowel Cancer Medical Detection Dog Jodie (Aaron Chown/PA)PA Wire/PA Images - Aaron Chown

Scepticism on this medical use of canines still exists and Camilla added: “We’ll just have to bring more people back here… and more dogs.”

The Queen also met black Labrador Wolfie, six, who is trained to alert owner Lucy Burls before a spike in symptoms of her Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS).

Ms Burls, 39, said Wolfie will usually alert her by making eye contact but if her condition worsens he will rest his head on her lap.

She said Camilla was surprised to learn Wolfie can travel with Ms Burls on planes and even speedboats for a holiday.

He particularly enjoys double decker buses, Ms Burls told the Press Association.

Camilla has been patron of the Medical Detection Dogs charity since 2014 (Aaron Chown/PA)PA Wire/PA Images - Aaron Chown

The electronic nose device was developed by the charity and Dr Andreas Mershin, from RealNose.AI.

Dr Mershin put the technology in the Queen’s hands and blew into it to demonstrate its ability to pick up scent.

Camilla joked that the dogs were far faster – only taking about four seconds.

Whereas the machine, she was told, takes about 10 minutes to detect cancer.

Camilla, right, looking at a new ‘electronic nose’, a collaboration between Medical Detection Dogs and Dr Andreas Mershin (left) from RealNose.AI, to replicate the dogs’ diagnostic accuracy (Aaron Chown/PA)PA Wire/PA Images - Aaron Chown

Dr Mershin said: “The dogs are leading, they’re still beating us on every metric, however we have to start somewhere and the best thing is to compete against them.”

The Queen said: “Nature will always lead the way.”

“However brilliant, as the machine is, we’re always going to need the dogs”, she added, telling the engineer: “It’s fascinating, thank you very much… I shall look forward to an update.”