Every academic year, the staff at Northampton High come together to choose a charity close to their heart, that we can support for the following year through a course of fundraising activities. We never thought when this year’s charity was chosen back in September what a significant role it could play in our fight against COVID-19.
Medical Detection Dogs is a charity based near to Buckingham which is able to train dogs to detect a number of diseases including Parkinson’s, Malaria and a number of different cancers. More recently as seen in the national press and television they have started to train their dogs to detect COVID-19, with a dog needing less than half a second to sniff out if a person has the disease, even if the person is not exhibiting the symptoms.
We were lucky enough to have two visits from the charity over the past term, the most recent being in February when the whole school attended an assembly that featured Susie and her dog, Max.
The events we have organised this year have been varied and enjoyable, from our annual Santa Fun Run to raffles and the whole school wearing red on Valentine’s day. So far we have raised over £1453 which we have already sent through to the charity to help with their valuable work. We hope in the not too distant future to organise a sponsored dog walk for our community to raise even more funds and get us closer to our £4000 target which will mean we can name a puppy.
