Medical Detection Dogs has announced that Her Majesty the Queen will continue her role as Royal Patron of the organisation.

This follows formal confirmation from Clarence House last week, marking over ten years of support.

Her Majesty has been the Patron of MDD since 2014. During her tenure, she has observed numerous Bio Detection Dogs at work, including cancer detection dogs at Clarence House and Covid-19 detection dogs at MDD headquarters and Paddington Station. She has also met many Medical Alert Assistance Dog partnerships.

Most recently, Her Majesty hosted a reception for MDD at Clarence House to celebrate the organisation’s 15th anniversary. At this event, she witnessed one of the first public demonstrations of dogs detecting the odour of Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), a part of MDD’s new project.

Celebrating a Decade of Royal Patronage

Claire Guest, Co-Founder and CEO of Medical Detection Dogs, expressed her delight at the continuation of Her Majesty’s patronage. “We are delighted that Her Majesty the Queen will continue her involvement with MDD as Patron as she has been part of our journey almost since our early years,” said Guest. “We have been lucky enough to meet her at our training centre, royal households, and public places. It has always been clear how passionate she is about dogs and how genuinely interested she is in our work. We look forward to continuing our relationship and showing the world together how much difference dogs’ noses could make in the early diagnosis of disease.”

At the recent reception at Clarence House, Her Majesty reflected on her ten years as Patron. “I’ve been Patron for ten years and the first time I went to visit Claire Guest in Milton Keynes it was almost a tiny little shed with just Claire and one or two others. Back then there was a lot of scepticism but as you’ve seen today, seeing is believing.”