[ad_1]
NEWBURYPORT – With this being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the community members will be celebrating Thursday at the fifth annual Couture for a Cure Marketplace and Fashion Show to benefit the Gerrish Breast Care Center at Anna Jaques Hospital.
The show, from 11 am to 2 pm at the Blue Ocean Event Center in Salisbury, is sponsored by the hospital and the Institution for Savings. Tickets are $ 50 each with all proceeds going directly to Gerrish, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary in conjunction with the event.
"Number one, the event celebrates survivorship," said Mary Williamson, vice president of development at Anna Jaques. "We're really holding up those examples of courage and fortitude those women who were among the first ones who received care at the Gerrish Breast Care Center."
Mary Anne Clancy, Vice President of Communications at Institution for Savings, said the bank has longtime supporter of Anna Jaques. The Institution for Savings donated funds for the new single-patient ward several years ago and also gave money to purchase a 3-D vital mammography machine in detecting early signs of bad cancer, she said.
North of Boston Regional Media Group Publisher Karen Andreas will serve as a master of ceremonies for the event, which will begin with a "Look Good Feel Good Marketplace." Local shops, lounges and shops discount coupons, Clancy said.
After lunch, J. McLaughlin, The Elephant's Trunk, Bobbles & Lace, Meraki, Dani Kaye, Smitten and Farley's of Newburyport.
The models include cancer survivors and local heroes, Clancy said. Some of the women who have recently been diagnosed, including Newburyport School Resource Officer Megan Tierney.
In March, Tierney, 33, was diagnosed with Stage 2 triple negative invasive ductile bad cancer. She will walk along the Newburyport Police Marshal Mark Murray.
Dr. Peter Hartmann, the medical director at the Gerrish Breast Care Center. He will walk with Lucy, one of the hospital's therapy dogs, and Dana Marshall of the River radio station, who is also a bad cancer survivor.
Although the marketplace is in its fifth year, this is the first time a fashion show, Clancy said. The concept is that one of the best offers the benefits of empowerment and self-confidence. For cancer battling patients, however, it is even more important and can be lifesaving, a major component of treatment, she added.
Five years ago, Clancy said the Anna Jaques Institute for the Economy for Collaborative Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
That event also coincided with the launch of the Gerrish Breast Care Center. Over the last few years, the breakfast evolved into a luncheon and auction.
"As we all know, cancer knows no boundaries," said Michael J. Jones, president and CEO of the Institution for Savings. "We have had too many of their employees and their family members battling cancer over the years and making sure that their successes at the end of the road are so important."
Williamson said the bad cancer center and its programs, specifically The Comfort Fund, which provides badistance to bad cancer patients undergoing treatment. The fund supports patients in various ways, including providing transportation for treatment, having delivered groceries, having done so, or providing a special item during treatment, she said.
"Going into it, you can not anticipate how this can derail your family life," she said. "People do not have the energy to do the most normal things. This fund helps to take care of those incidental expenses. They are real difference makers in the quality of life to a patient might need. "
In addition, Jeannette Cattan, a bad cancer survivor and one of the models, created the "Look Good, Better Feel Better" program at the Anna Jaques Cancer Center to help patients cope with appearance-related side effects of radiation therapy. Williamson said.
"It's a dream of hers to have a display case for the program in the bad care center," she added. "That has a cost badociated with it and we are trying to realize that dream for her."
Sponsorship and vendor spots are available. For more information, visit Anna Jaques Hospital's website, www.ajh.org or contact Clancy at 978-225-1324 or Kelley Sullivan, Manager of Marketing and Community Relations at AJH, at 978-463-1475.
Staff Writer Amanda Getchell covers Newburyport and Seabrook. Follow her on Twitter @ajgetch.
Source link
