First, let's go shopping in the Berner Bonanza Giveaway Gallery and pick out the free prizes you want to win! We have assembled many lovely Berner items to give to those of you with Berners in your life or those of you who wish you had a Berner in your life. All you have to do is to request your FREE tickets and then decide which items you would like to spend your tickets on. There are two categories of tickets: Group A and Group B. Here is how it works:
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Send an email to Joye Neff (joye.neff@gmail.com) and ask her for up to 10 free tickets for Group A
and up to 100 free tickets for Group B.
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Then tell Joye how many tickets you want to spend on which items in the Gallery.
EXAMPLE: "Joye, please give me 10 FREE Group A tickets and put them all toward Gallery item C. I would also like 100 FREE Group B tickets and put 10 each toward Gallery item numbers 2, 8, 14, 22, 33, 34, 45, 49, 54 and 62."
It's that simple!
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You may also request that Joye send free tickets to your Berner friends, mentors, or people you admire. The unexpected surprise will make their day!
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Winners will be chosen by random drawing for each prize and prizes will be mailed to each winner following the drawing.
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While you are shopping for your free prizes, please consider making a donation to our 2022 Cancer Research Fundraiser. You may win your free prizes regardless of making a donation, but you are here anyway and why not help support the research that may ultimately give you more time with your Berner or a friend's Berner. All contributions to the Bernese Mountain Dog Charitable Foundation are greatly appreciated and tax-deductible under our non-profit 501(c)(3) charity status, subject to IRS regulations.
Goal of our 2022 Cancer Research Fundraiser:
raise $25,000 to fund Histiocytic Cancer Research
We all live with the knowledge that Bernese Mountain Dogs are susceptible to a handful of diseases, including specific forms of cancer. Perhaps the most devastating are histiocytic cancers, because they grow aggressively and no treatments are currently available. Research in the lab of Dr. Matthew Breen at North Carolina State University is searching for mutations found frequently in the cells of histiocytic tumors. Preliminary research from the lab has recently identified a handful of related candidate genes that may be mutated in histiocytic cancers. If mutations in these candidate genes are found, it opens the potential to use or develop drug treatments that are specifically targeted to the particular gene that is mutated in individual cases. This precision medicine approach holds the promise of quickly identifying a drug treatment that is likely to be effective, rather than trying many different medicines that are not likely to help.
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For our 2022 Cancer Research Fundraiser, the BMDCF aims to raise $25,000 to enable and accelerate Dr. Breen’s histio work. His research goals in this phase of the project are to:
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1. Develop a rapid, inexpensive, and reliable method to detect mutations in the candidate genes the lab has identified, and
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2. Screen their extensive bank of histiocytic tumors for the presence of mutations in each of these genes.
In 2019 we were able to provide Dr. Breen with the funds to buy an expensive piece of equipment and some reagents needed to work toward identifying specific genes associated with Histiocytic Cancers. This year's Cancer Research Fundraiser will help build on the work Dr. Breen was able to do with our previous backing. Dr. Breen is particularly grateful to the Berner community for their support of his research and is sensitive to the urgency felt by Berner owners to find a way to stop this cancer from taking our dogs from us too soon.
Dear Joye
I would like to express my sincere appreciation to you and to everyone who contributed to the Berner 2019 cancer fundraiser. Over the past 20 years our team at NC State has been working closely with the Berner community to try to learn more about cancers in the breed, in particular histiocytic malignancies. The courage Berner parents have shown to submit precious specimens, especially at times of great personal distress, is remarkable. The detailed genetic evaluation of hundreds of specimens has allowed us to identify several genes that play a role in these devastating cancers. The funds raised will be used to purchase a new analytical instrument that will provide us with the means to accelerate this work. Since the fundraiser exceeded its goal, the additional funds will be used to purchase some of the reagents we need to start this next stage in our research.
It is very humbling to know that the Berner community has continued confidence in what we are doing with this work to help the breed. This is a daily reminder that we need to keep steering our research toward impactful discoveries to benefit Berners. Please pass along my most sincere thanks to all.
Best wishes
Matthew Breen PhD CBiol FRSB
Please help us reach our goal! Anything exceeding our goal will go into our Cancer Research Fund for supporting future cancer research projects. You may donate through our Donate Now portal, please indicate that this donation is for the 2022 Cancer Research Fundraiser in the "Use this donation for" drop-down box, or you may write a check made payable to the Bernese Mountain Dog Charitable Foundation. If you are sending a check from outside of the US, make it payable to Joye M. Neff (her bank does not charge a fee for converting foreign checks to US dollars, so the 2022 Cancer Research Fundraiser will get the entire amount of your donation). Mail all checks to Joye at the address below.
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Joye Neff
108 Minnock Dr.
Mars, PA 16046-1308