Every day, women in York Region put their trust in Dr. Kira Tone.

A resident of Aurora, the anesthesiologist at Southlake Regional Health Centre has dedicated her life and career to practicing health care in her community, driven to have a positive impact on the place she calls home.

Next month, she is taking this community commitment to a decidedly different level – as a runway model for a spring fashion show hosted by local boutique Oakridge Fashions.

The Be Beautiful Spring Fashion Show is set to take place at the newly restored Aurora Armoury, home of Niagara College's Canadian Food & Wine Institute, on April 2, and it is billed as
a way to showcase “the looks of spring and the gift of hope.”

While a spring fashion show is a staple of Oakridge, they are taking their show on the road.

“This, to my mind, is not just a fashion show – I can do that every day – but I wanted the story to be more holistic and that is the story of us as partners,” says Deb Clark, owner of Oakridge, referring to the Southlake Regional Health Centre Foundation. “When the audience learns that one of our models does something distinctly different on her day job, I think it really amps up the message in a big way and it says, ‘Okay, this is important. If this busy woman here can find time in her schedule to get outfitted, get into fashion, and get up on the stage, I think it elevates the importance of this issue, and that is really what I want to do.”

This is a view shared by Dr. Tone.

Dr. Tone's involvement with the Southlake Regional Health Centre Foundation covers many different areas, but she has a particular interest in their Women's Health Initiative, which serves to raise awareness of issues surrounding – and spur dialogue on –women's health.

The Women's Health Initiative was launched by Southlake last fall to highlight unique care needs in the community. The hospital currently needs more than $6 million to meet women's health needs, including new and replacement equipment for advanced cardiac, breast cancer, gynaecological care and treatment.

Needs include magnetic breast seeds, which help guide surgeons to accurately locate tumours, and new mammography machines, which allow patients to directly control the paddles that position the breast for imaging, while also allowing women to manage their own breast compression.

Proceeds from the Be Beautiful Spring Fashion Show will help Southlake towards their goal of purchasing three of these new mammography machines.

“Relinquishing control for anything is hard and that is what patients do when they come to the hospital for any health care, but particularly in my field, women and men come into the OR and they have to give up control to me and have faith I am going to put them to sleep safely, wake them up safely. Giving up that control is scary,” says Dr. Tone. “But, if you give them back that control as much as we can, it becomes a little less scary.”

Adds Susan Mullin, President & CEO of the Southlake Regional Health Centre Foundation: “A number of women become very anxious about having to have a mammogram and it is one of the key diagnostic tools in screening for breast cancer. What studies have shown is by introducing self-compression, women are more inclined to keep their appointments and get that screening. The other thing that studies show is women, on occasion, will actually apply greater compression than a technician would, creating better quality images.”

Ms. Clark knows this reality all too well. Having put off her own mammogram, she eventually received a diagnosis. Thankfully, her cancer, a particularly aggressive kind, was caught early and was dealt with, but the experience underscored to her the importance of early detection. And having the means of early detection close to home.

“I think the Women's Health Initiative is more than fundraising; it is awareness-raising,” says Ms. Clark. “When you raise awareness about the kinds of things women may not have thought were on the Women's Health agenda, you do more than raise funds, you save lives. There's an awful lot of people in Ontario who don't understand that the funding of our hospitals is not coming straight from the government. It is so important to build awareness.”

The Be Beautiful Spring Fashion Show will take place at the restored Armoury on Thursday, April 2. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased from Oakridge Fashions at 14800 Yonge Street or by calling 905-716-4063. Doors open at 6 p.m., and, in addition to a fashion show modeled by more than a dozen models, many of whom have been drawn from the Southlake community, ticket-holders will get a behind-the-scenes look at the CFWI, sample their culinary treats, and be invited back to Oakridge following the show to purchase the items they have seen on the runaway. A portion of all proceeds will benefit the Southlake Foundation.

Models hitting the runway span the ages of 25 to 87 and sizes small to double XL because, in the words of Ms. Clark, “style has no size.”

“A lot of breast cancer patients are post-mastectomy or post-double mastectomy and a lot of them don't have reconstruction for multiple reasons,” says Dr. Tone. “Fashion is a way for them to feel confident in themselves. I have devoted my life and career to healthcare, but, for me, to see someone in our community who devotes her time, her money, her efforts, that takes away from her family and her busy life, it is pretty incredible to know we have that kind of community backing, that Southlake means as much to people in our community as it does to me.

“That's what I do every day – I love it, I love my job, but it is nice to have people like Deb supporting us, because we need it.”

By Brock Weir