Alfie the spaniel sniffed out my cancer, says owner

A woman has praised her pet dog for helping save her life after he appeared to detect her breast cancer.

Katie Banfield, from Wendover in Buckinghamshire, was diagnosed in 2024 - after Alfie "sniffed very intensely" on one part of her breast.

She said the cocker spaniel, who had received no detection training, put "his nose in really deep". Two weeks later, doctors found a 2.5cm x 2cm (1in x 0.8in) lump in the same place.

Banfield, who has now been given the all-clear, described five-year-old Alfie as "a little star" and said "he obviously realised I smelled different from normal".

Banfield, 62, told the BBC there had been a history of cancer in her family, so she had regularly gone to routine check-ups and screenings prior to her diagnosis.

She added: "It was incredible that he found it so quickly, particularly as when he first started sniffing there wasn't even a lump yet."

Banfield is doing a tandem sky dive in July to raise money for Medical Detection Dogs (MDD), a charity she described as "absolutely incredible".

Buckinghamshire-based MDD trains dogs to detect the odour of human diseases.

It says they can use their specialised scent capabilities to sniff out conditions like cancer, Parkinson's, and malaria, or to warn individuals of life-threatening blood sugar levels or allergic reactions.

An MDD spokesperson said: "Dogs are the most powerful biosensors on the planet.

"They can smell odour at parts per trillion - the equivalent of a teaspoon of sugar in two Olympic-sized swimming pools."

Banfield, an osteopath, said the sky dive had been organised by the Academy of Physical Medicine.

She said: "It is something that, at the back of my mind, I thought 'I would actually quite like to do that'.

"I'm much older now, so I'm very happy about doing a tandem one."

Although Alfie is now too old to train as a medical detection dog, Banfield confirmed he still enjoyed agility training and running around the woods with his four-legged friends.

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