March is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

22nd May 2005.

A date that will haunt me forever.

The day that my sister and I lost our mum to ovarian cancer.

The thing about ovarian cancer though, is that the date of her death isn’t the only date that haunts me.

There where the days where we witnessed mum fragile and weak.

The days where we witnessed her loosing her hair.

The days where ovarian cancer showed itself in all of it’s brutal form as sickness and pain took over.

Those days may haunt me, but it’s the days where mums strength and inner happiness shined through that I’ll remember the most.

The days where she would act as though nothing was wrong. Few and far between, but memories I’ll treasure forever.

As per the title of this post, March is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

Ovarian cancer is known as the silent killer. Quite often there are no symptoms until the disease has reached an advanced stage. It’s one of the most deadliest cancers in women. Some early symptoms which are important to look out for and should never be ignored are:

Image source

I found this information on the Target Ovarian Cancer Website:

“When a woman is diagnosed at the earliest stage, her chance of surviving ovarian cancer for five years or more doubles from just 46 per cent to more than 90 per cent.

However, nearly half of GPs mistakenly believe symptoms only present in the later stages of the disease, and less than a third of women in the UK are confident they know the symptoms.”

How can you help?

Sign up here to make some noise and raise money to help support women with ovarian cancer. Whether it’s a bake sale, karaoke or handing out information leaflets and asking for donations, every little thing helps.

Did you know?

• About 7,300 women are diagnosed each year in the UK 1
• 4,100 women lose their lives each year – that’s 11 women every day 2
• A woman in the UK has a one in 50 chance of being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in her lifetime
• When a woman is diagnosed at the earliest stage, her chance of surviving ovarian cancer for five years or more doubles from just 46 per cent to more than 90 per cent 3
• Nearly half of GPs (44 per cent) mistakenly believe symptoms only present in the later stages of ovarian cancer 4
• Just one in five UK women (20 per cent) can name bloating as one of the main symptoms of ovarian cancer 5
• Almost half of women (45 per cent) must wait three months or more from first visiting their GP to getting a correct diagnosis 6
• Over a quarter of women with ovarian cancer (26 per cent) are diagnosed through an emergency presentation such as Accident and Emergency 7
• One third (31 per cent) of women mistakenly think the cervical screening programme would detect ovarian cancer 8