We’ve Put our Hands Up

In 2008, a Dental Assistant at North Shore Dental was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Following her two year battle, at age 29, Leigh died from this disease leaving three children without their mother. The memory of Leigh is our inspiration to help in finding a cure for this disease.

We miss Leigh each and every day, and she made a huge imprint on the hearts of us at North Shore Dental. It is that memory that inspires us to raise funds to help other women with Breast Cancer to live rich, full and long lives. As you will see, the breast cancer statistics for New Zealand are poor, and will continue to get worse unless something is done, and quickly. How could we help? What could our community do to help Kiwi women? What 

do we know about research into this disease? The one thing we did know was that scientific research was costly. This is where Dentists For A Cause was born. Dentists For A Cause is a fundraising initiative aimed at raising money to 

further the research into this disease, in an effort to help find a cure. A designated day would be set aside, whereby all of the fees generated from treating patients that day would be donated to the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation.

"How could we help? What could our community do to help Kiwi women? What do we know about research into this disease?"

Now the recruitment drive was on to find like-minded practices to join us in this quest. “Dentists for a Cause is a brilliant idea, one that will make a real difference to our research programme,” said Evangelia Henderson, chief executive at the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation. “New Zealand has some world-class researchers, and we’re grateful to be able to direct their skills into the field of breast cancer, where there’s still so much work to be done.” The NZ Breast Cancer Foundation’s focus on preventing women dying of breast cancer struck a chord with our practice. The NZBCF is currently funding research studies to develop new drugs for hard-to-treat triple negative and lobular breast cancers, and studies into biomarkers that will help doctors understand which cancers are most likely to spread and how to treat them more effectively. The Breast Cancer Patient Registers, funded by the NZBCF, give doctors and researchers a detailed picture of how well Kiwi women fare with their breast cancer treatment, and help identify inequalities. On October 17 of this year, all participating Dental Practices will be donating all of the payments they receive from treating patients on that day to the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation. This is the Dental Community’s opportunity to put their hands up in support of this battle. This money will be allocated to Research Projects whose mission is to prevent Kiwi women developing and dying of breast cancer. For more information go to www.dentistsforacause.co.nz or check us out on Facebook.

For more information go to www.dentistsforacause.co.nz

or check us out on Facebook.

 

"Dentists for a Cause is a brilliant idea, one that will make a real difference to our research programme, said Evangelia Henderson, chief executive at the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation."