EPPERSTONE WI
Christmas seems like a long time ago, but we did have a meeting in December when we enjoyed wine and festive mince pies. Margaret Robinson and Enid Young gave instructions and encouragement in
making crafty Christmas trees using lots of ribbons and sparkly items. Some of us are rather lacking in dexterity so it was just as well we were not allowed to use the glue gun.
To round off the evening we had a Christmas Carol quiz which required us to sing the answers. Fortunately the refreshments ensured we were all in good voice.
Moving on to our meeting in January 2020. As part of the planning for our centenary, an invitation had been sent to the Queen to join us for our Birthday Party. Our President, Susan Hannington,
had that very morning received an envelope marked with the royal crest. The excitement was building as Susan donned her very best hat to respectfully open the envelope. As anticipated, the Queen’s
secretary wrote that unfortunately her Majesty would not be able to attend owing to a prior engagement, but she was very touched to receive our invitation and hoped we would enjoy our
celebrations.
Our speaker, Mike Money,(who really used to work in a bank!) came to explain the work of Medical Detection Dogs, a charity that was established 11 years ago.
Labradors and spaniels are the breeds that are mainly trained to be either Bio Detection Dogs that work with samples and have no contact with people, or Medical Alert Assistance Dogs which are
partnered with individuals.
A dog’s nose has many more scent receptors than a human, and with training can identify specific cancers such as bladder, kidney, and prostate cancers from samples. This non-invasive form of
detection can save lives.
Medical Alert Assistance dogs are trained to alert, fetch help, attract attention, and get medical supplies. They are partnered particularly with people who have hypo-unaware type 1 diabetes,
also people with Addisons disease, or people who suffer severe allergies or seizures.As these are life-threatening conditions with no warning symptoms, the dogs working with individuals improve their
quality of life, give confidence, and reduce hospital admissions.
Mike illustrated his talk with two short videos showing both the Bio Detection Dogs and the Medical Alert Assistance Dogs at work, which made a convincing case for this very worthwhile
charity.
Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday 11 February at 7.30pm in the Village Hall when some of our own members will talk on their chosen subject.
Visitors are very welcome.
M.G.
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