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Canine Cancer Fight Gets Boost: Pet's Death Gives Beverly Hills Couple Cause

Posted on: Thursday, 13 April 2006, 06:00 CDT

By L.L. Brasier, Detroit Free Press

Apr. 13--When Winston, a yellow Labrador retriever with a sunny disposition, grew lethargic and thin during the summer of 2001, his owners, the Dunbar family of Beverly Hills, took him to veterinarians, who were at a loss. When a specialist in canine cancer finally diagnosed lymphoma, it was too late. Winston died Aug. 1, 2001, at the age of 9.

Along the way, Paul Dunbar and his wife, Mindy Richards, learned that few resources were available in southeast Michigan to help dogs with cancer. Treatments such as radiation -- standard in human care but also effective in animals -- were hard to find. So the couple founded the Winston Canine Cancer Foundation, a nonprofit group that raises money to help sick dogs and finance research into the fast-growing field of animal oncology.

Since Winston's death, the group has raised between $50,000 and $100,000 a year through fund-raisers and an annual silent auction. It has used that money to treat more than 20 dogs with cancer and to fund research, Richards said.

Since the foundation's formation in the fall of 2001, it has had to limit financial help to working dogs, such as those trained to help blind or disabled people. But the foundation, which has an office in Birmingham, also acts as a resource center, hooking up worried pet owners with specialists in the region.

Dunbar and Richards now have two Labs, but they see the foundation as a way to honor Winston, who they hoped would live into his teens.

"We've been on the receiving end of Mindy's hard work many times," said Dr. Steve Smith, veterinarian at Leader Dogs for the Blind in Rochester. "We've worked with her and the foundation on a number of guide dogs and they've picked up the cost of therapy."

This year's silent auction will be May 19 at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham. For information, call 248-644-7363 or e-mail WinstonCCF@aol.com. Contact L.L. BRASIER at 248-858-2262 or brasier@freepress.com.

photo

Mindy Richards and Paul Dunbar have two yellow Labs -- Abbey, left, and Lucy -- but the dogs can't replace Winston, who died of lymphoma in 2001. The couple, here with their son, Harrison Dunbar, 6, founded the Winston Canine Cancer Foundation to fund cancer treatment and research. (REGINA H. BOONE/Detroit Free Press)

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Copyright (c) 2006, Detroit Free Press

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Source: Detroit Free Press

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