Health & Wellbeing
Two new labrador puppies from Invercargill have recently joined the K9 Medical Detection bowel cancer detection squad.
Each puppy costs $85,000 to raise from 8 weeks to 12 months when they are ready to start cancer odour detection work.
The Invercargill Licensing Trust (ILT) is one of the southern funders of the initiative ilt.co.nz/k9-medical-detection/
In May 2024 some of the ILT board were lucky enough to meet one of the new puppies Flagstaff Southern Skye, and now the K9MD Charitable Trust has brought in Flagstaff Southern Star and Flagstaff Southern Seeker to the team.
“What they’re doing is literally world leading and we’re delighted to play a part in supporting them,” ILT communications advisor Emma Hunter said.
Since 2023 ILT has funded $315,000 towards the cost of purchasing and training the medical detection dogs, operating expenses including specialist Invercargill nurses, and laboratory technicians to process samples.
K9MD founder Pauline Blomfield said it cost $1.5 million a year in core funding to keep the research going.
Once the charitable trust is officially ‘validated’ by the health industry, nine trained dogs will be required just for bowel cancer to be used as diagnostic tools to give medical professionals more information and determine the best pathway forward for their patients.
“At the end of the day we are there to help triage the patient. It will also help to speed up wait times if a more invasive diagnosis is required.”
The South has the highest number of people diagnosed with bowel cancer in New Zealand, and the aim of the detection service is to create a simple urine test that can help the fight against the disease.
Pauline said “unfortunately the current bowel screening test is limited to age, whilst for ovarian cancer, there is no early testing, and diagnosis is only by surgical biopsy.
The dog’s nose can detect disease at a microscopic level, prior to symptoms appearing, “and we are very fortunate to have the support of medical specialists, clinicians and scientists to guide us with this research.”
“There is amazing research done throughout the world on a dog’s natural ability to detect various odours”.
But back in New Zealand, K9MD needs approximately 800 samples from throughout New Zealand to complete the next stage in their research, and this takes time and money.
“And then to ensure both scalability and sustainability, we’ll have to look at a purpose designed and built our own facility in order to process the significant large number of samples. That’s a $15 million project on its own.”
K9 Medical Detection New Zealand operates out of AgResearch Invermay in Mosgiel, Dunedin, and won the Business South Innovation award in 2025.
Word of the trust’s ground-breaking work is spreading around the globe and an Australian charity has just raised $NZ200,000 for the trust to continue its research. The Royal Canin Foundation in France is also supporting K9MD’s Ovarian cancer research.
The trust had recently formed a collaborative partnership with a newly founded Australian cancer charity called Get Yourself Checked.
Pauline said the funding was an endorsement of the internationally recognised work the team is doing.
If you are interested in sponsoring the two new dogs or another part of the project, check out www.k9md.org.nz or email: [email protected]