Denim the all-American clothing that never goes out of style is also helping to fight breast cancer.
From Friday, Oct. 3 until Friday, Oct. 10, the Canterbury Animal Hospital in Delmar will donate $5 toward breast cancer research for every customer and client, two legs or four, who walks through the doors wearing denim.
According to veterinarian Tara Estra, she means any kind of denim clothing.
`During the week, every client that comes in wearing jeans or anything denim we’re going to donate $5 to help fight breast cancer,` Estra said. `If you come in with a denim bandana, we’re going to donate that $5.`
Located at 88 Delaware Ave., the Canterbury Animal Hospital is expanding upon the Lee National Denim Day, which bills itself as the largest single-day breast cancer fundraiser in the nation, on Oct. 3.
`We’re going to expand it for the whole week,` said Estra, who came up with the idea after reading about the Lee National Denim Day. Having a small staff at her office, Estra said she wanted to open up the fundraiser to her customers and local residents and, of course, their pets.
`We wanted to open it up to our community,` Estra said. `I had seen an ad in Time magazine about the Lee Denim Day and all of the staff here has been touched in some way or form by breast cancer, so we went ahead and put this together.`
October is national Breast Cancer Awareness Month and a month that focuses on the most common form of cancer in women, second only to skin cancer, and is the second leading cause of cancer death in women after lung cancer.
According to the American Cancer Society, about 182,460 women in the United States will be found to have invasive breast cancer in 2008. Statistics show that about one in eight women will have some type of invasive breast cancer in their lifetime and that the chance of dying from it is about one in 35.
The American Cancer Society reports that breast cancer death rates have been steadily declining, however, and cite the reason as a result of earlier detection and improved medical treatment and options.
The Canterbury Animal Hospital has been open in Delmar for two years and has a staff of four, including Estra, who earned her doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. Estra has also been an active volunteer for the past 10 years raising and training guide dogs from puppies for the
Guiding Eyes for the Blind organization.
`One Day, One Cause, One Cure,` is the motto of the Lee fundraiser that began in 1996 when Lee employees paid $5 to wear jeans to work one day and donated the money. The company’s Web site said the annual event has netted more the $70 million to help fight breast cancer.
For information about the fundraising event, visit www.canterburyvet.com. “