Woman says dogs saved her life after they 'detect' cancer before diagnosis
A woman has thanked her "incredible" dogs after she said they spotted her cancer before she felt any lumps.
Linda Munkley lives in Bargoed with her husband and two German Shepherds Bea and Enya - who she said suddenly started sniffing and headbutting her chest out of nowhere.
"On and on this behaviour went, so I began checking my chest to see if I could feel any lumps - but there was nothing out of the ordinary", Linda said.
"Eight weeks went by of the exact same behaviour of Bea headbutting me... until one day I felt a lump in one of my breasts.
"I went to the doctors to have it examined and they carried out a mammogram and then confirmed to me that it was a fast-growing form of breast cancer and it had started spreading to my lymph nodes."
Linda has since undergone successful treatment - and said the dogs even sniffed out that the cancer had gone.
"I started chemotherapy and throughout that time Bea and Enya continued with their behaviour until after my third session of chemo when they both completely stopped all of a sudden," she said.
"I had six months of chemotherapy and then had an operation to remove the lump followed by a month of radiotherapy. After the lump had been removed it was analysed which revealed that the chemotherapy had actually killed the cancer cells."
Linda said she told her doctor what had happened and he was "amazed".
"I explained what Bea and Enya had been doing and the story spread throughout the whole hospital. My doctor was amazed and told me that I should go home and thank my dogs because they had saved my life."
Pets, particularly dogs, have heightened senses hundreds of times better than those of humans.
This makes them ideal to be trained as assistance and medical detection pets so they can alert owners with health conditions. Research is also currently being undertaken to see if dogs can detect diseases, such as cancer, through smell.
"Words can’t describe how grateful I am to the both of them", Linda said.
"What they have done is just astounding and they really have saved my life. It just goes to show how incredible dogs really are."