Dress in Blue Day 2023

Each year, on the first Friday of March, people across North America dress in blue to bring awareness to colorectal cancer and to support the work being done to end the disease.

At DMCL, Dress in Blue Day hit closer to home when one of our own, Catherine Perka, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2019.

As Catherine began her fight against cancer, the Surrey office began looking for ways to support her.

As an ongoing participant in the walk for leukemia, colleague Amy Duncan began searching for a comparable initiative for colorectal cancer and learned about Dress in Blue Day. This set the wheels in motion and, on March 6, 2020, DMCL’s participation in Dress in Blue Day began.

Catherine completed treatment in 2020 and continues to be an advocate. To celebrate the end of her treatment, Catherine and her husband, Dan, held a fundraiser this past November for the research of colorectal cancer and leukemia. In total, they raised $14,000 to help improve the experience of future patients.

This year, staff across all offices Dressed in Blue on March 3 to show their support for those—like Catherine—who’ve been touched by colorectal cancer, while helping to raise awareness about this preventable, treatable and beatable disease that will be diagnosed in approximately 27,000 Canadians this year.

To learn more about colorectal cancer, please visit Colorectal Cancer Canada.