THERE was an incredible response to our guest speaker at Chick Chat Coffee Conversations as she shared her journey with ovarian cancer recently. Having a guest speaker courageous enough to share her story develops understanding as it humanises the disease and touches us deeply.
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The symptoms of ovarian cancer can be difficult to diagnose because many women experience them from time to time such as abdominal or pelvic pain, bloating, the need to urinate often or urgently and feeling full after eating a small amount. There is no definitive test to monitor for this disease. Having a regular smear test does not pick up ovarian cancer. In fact, our speaker had had an all clear on her smear test only a few weeks prior to her diagnosis of ovarian cancer stage IV.
A grabbing pain as she was getting ready for work was a trigger that something was wrong such as a pulled muscle. The pain level was a six out of ten, increasing by mid-morning and reaching ten by the time she got to casualty. Throughout her treatment she relied on her specialist and her faith. She found it comforting when people said ‘thinking of you’ and ‘praying for you’ not ‘stay positive’.
Ovarian cancer has the lowest survival rate of any women’s cancer which has remained the same for 30 years. With four women diagnosed every day and three will die from the disease we want to keep the conversation going that will inspire change and to make a difference for those affected by ovarian cancer.
For information or to make a donation: https://ovariancancer.net.au.
