Help 'paint the town red' for vital Bucks charity
Medical Detection Dogs need help with their new challenge - COVID-19
A vital Buckinghamshire charity is asking people to raise cash to help them with the challenge of coronavirus.
Medical Detection Dogs is asking everyone to match the red jackets of it's lifesaving dogs for it's annual fundraising event, Paint the Town Red, between the 8th-14th February.
Medical Detection Dogs trains dogs to save lives by smelling human disease. The charity's Bio Detection Dogs have already been trained find diseases like cancer, malaria and Parkinson's and are currently being trained to detect COVID-19.
Schoolchildren will be wearing red for their online lessons, takeaway outlets will be selling red cakes and cookies, businesses will be decorating shopfronts and websites in red and much more.
Medical Alert Assistance Dogs are partnered with people with life-threatening conditions like Type 1 diabetes, PoTS or Addison's disease. They alert their human partner to a change in their smell which indicates that a potentially fatal event is about to happen, saving their lives daily and giving them independence and their families peace of mind.
Training costs £29,000
It costs the charity £29,000 to train each Medical Alert Assistance Dog and it relies on the generosity and fundraising efforts of it's supporters.
The challenge of coronavirus and training dogs to detect the disease has made this year more expensive and much busier for them.
Community Fundraiser at Medical Detection Dogs, Carolyn Green, says:
"By joining in with our Paint the Town Red week you will not only be celebrating love for Valentine's Day but also raising funds and awareness of the work of our amazing dogs.
"Of course it will be a bit trickier this year with schools closed and many businesses not open but we have already heard of some fantastic ways that people are thinking outside the box and it's brilliant that lockdown hasn't stopped them.
"The diseases our Bio Detection Dogs are trained to detect affect every single one of us and they could be at the forefront of early diagnosis of cancer, Parkinson's and other diseases and ultimately more lives being saved. The conditions our Medical Alert Assistance Dogs work with are extremely complex and often our clients have given up hope of leading a normal life for fear of falling ill at any moment.
"Our dogs will be donning their own red coats with pride that week like every week so please join them!"
If you would like to 'Paint the Town Red' and need more information or would like to order a fundraising pack, you can do so here.