Dr Claire Guest BSc (Hons) MSc HonDSc. DHP BCAh FRSA

Dr Claire Guest obtained a BSc in Psychology in 1986, followed by an MSc in Psychology by research. Claire was Director of Operations and Research at Hearing Dogs for Deaf People until 2004. Claire directed one of the first programmes in the world to train dogs to identify cancer by odour and published the first robust proof of principle study in the BMJ in September 2004. Claire became Co-Founder of Medical Detection Dogs (MDD) alongside Dr John Church in 2008 and is now the Chief Executive and Chief Scientific Officer. In the following years, Medical Detection Dogs has focused on establishing a strong evidence base and to further train dogs to detect other life-threatening diseases such as malaria, Parkinson’s, pseudomonas and assistance dogs. In 2011 Claire was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the development of new approaches for the detection of life-threatening diseases. In January 2015 she was awarded a British Citizen Award for health and in 2016 received the CBI National First Women award for Science and Technology. Claire is also a frequent peer-reviewed author in scientific journals and has co-authored numerous publications on the detection of diseases by canines. In 2016 she wrote “Daisy’s Gift”, published by Virgin books, about the formation of the charity and her remarkable dog ‘Daisy’, who indicated her own breast cancer. Claire regularly presents at conferences around the world, and frequently appears on national and international television and radio to discuss and promote the pioneering work and research of MDD.