When my aunt was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2001, shock waves rang out through my family. The prognosis looked grim; only 5 years. As for my aunt herself, she was determined to beat the disease and see her son, Matthew, marry and have children of his own.

Every three to six weeks, Aunt Kim and her wonderful husband, Steve, would travel a 200 mile round trip to Winston-Salem, North Carolina and back for her regular chemotherapy treatments, which took a painful and unimaginable toll on her body. Nevertheless, Aunt Kim still kept fighting. In 2005, the cancer entered remission! It appeared that my aunt had won. She had beaten the evil disease!

Sadly, the cancer returned in 2007. Aunt Kim was saddened and discouraged, but not beaten. The last 2 and 1/2 years of her life were hard and painful. I think that she kept fighting because of her son, husband, sister, brother, father, me, and all of the ones that she loved. She still had much to live for.

Up until the last few days of her life, when she was too weak, my aunt studied the Holy Bible, prayed, loved, cared, and tried to look at her situation from an optimistic perspective. She attended church in her hometown of Mountain City, Tennessee for as long as her health permitted. Aunt Kim was truly a saint.

To me, Aunt Kim was a mentor, role model, loving aunt, kind-hearted woman, and devoted Christian. There is no doubt in my mind that she is resting in heaven as I write this. She truly made the most out of the time that she had on this earth. May God rest her soul.

Ovarian cancer is not just a disease. It is a ruthless enemy, with a cold heart, whose sole purpose is to destroy its victims. However, it did not destroy my aunt. It made her stronger. It made all of us stronger. We will deeply miss Aunt Kim and grieve sorrowfully in the coming days, weeks, months, and years. It won’t be pity for her, but pity for ourselves. This evil disease has taken a beautiful woman from our lives.

One thing is for certain. Aunt Kim fought the good fight.

Story submitted by Christopher Watson

Story submitted by Brenda Boscaino

I am a nine year survivor of stage IIB ovarian cancer. When I was diagnosed my mother was in her ninth year battling the disease. I was one of the fortunate ones who had a doctor that was paying attention to my family history and my silent symptoms.

It started out as a backache. I went to the doctor and saw the Physicians Assistant. She prescribed a muscle relaxer thinking that I had strained my back. When it had not gone away after a week I went back and saw my doctor. Because of the location of the pain and my family history she ordered an ultrasound. It came back showing a nasty cyst. She referred me to my gynecologist who did surgery within two weeks. When my doctor told me after my surgery that it was cancer, I was devastated. I had watched my mom fight this horrible disease for nine years and so I knew what was in store for me. I was only 40 and had two young daughters. I did six rounds of chemo and have been cancer free since my second chemo treatment. I am grateful that God walked with me in the journey along with my amazing family and friends. My mother lost her battle two years after my diagnosis but she was an amazing example for me on how to deal with cancer.

In January 2009, I was diagnosed with having the BRCA2 mutation gene. This diagnosis brought my odds of getting breast cancer to as high as 87%. After much prayer and discussion I decided to have a bilateral prophylactic mastectomy with reconstruction. The decision was hard but I chose to be proactive because my only other option was to wait to see if, when, and at what stage I would get breast cancer. My daughters were also tested and I am so grateful that they both tested negative along with two of my three sisters.

A week later, I went in with my husband for the suture removal, and I asked if they had found out anything about the mass that he removed. Remind you, I didn’t think anything about it either. The doctor just came out and told us it was cancer. I looked at my husband in shock and he was just staring at the floor. Of course I burst into tears and just kept looking at my son thinking that I wasn’t going to see him grow up. All these things kept running through my head. It was stage 1 so that was good. I had to have a full hysterectomy when my son was 10 days old. My husband was the most amazing person I know through all of it. Then I started chemo.

My husband and I had met on a blind date. We were married six months later and I was pregnant one month after the wedding. We named our son Joss which means “fate”. And I think it is fate that Joss waited so long to come out cause he wanted the doctors to find my cancer. Joss is my life saver, and I will forever be grateful for him and my husband.

My mom, Diana, was diagnosed with IIIC ovarian cancer in May 1995. Like so many at this time she was misdiagnosed and the cancer was found by accident. The doctors determined her problem was her gallbladder, a “simple” in and out procedure…until theyopened her up.

She was 50 years old, just graduated from college and had landed the job of her dreams as a kindergarten teacher. The doctors told her that there was one chemo that was producing great results and at her advanced stage they felt this was her only choice. She turned out to be allergic to the chemo and almost died at the office. The doctors felt at this point that they could just slow the cancer but did not have high hopes of remission. My mom told them she had no intention of dying; she had her students to teach and was not going anywhere until she saw me have my first child. At the time I was 23. My mom and I graduated from college together and I had no plans of getting married anytime soon.

It was this determination that kept my mom alive for almost 9 years. In December 2003 when my mom’s health was rapidly depleting, I found out that I was pregnant. My husband and I went to the hospital and told my parents in hopes that she could just hang on for the baby. She hung on as long as she could. On January 12th the hospital gave me a sonogram so my mom could see her grandbaby and the next day she slipped into coma.

We named our little girl Diana in my Mom’s honor.

Story submitted by Jennifer Ranke

My journey with ovarian cancer started about 34 years ago when I was a freshman in college. Even though my actual surgery will be 30 years ago on May 28th, all the events are still so vivid in my mind. During one spring break in college, I experienced a pain in my side that didn’t seem to go away. When I returned to campus after the break, I went to see the college physician about the pain, and he did a blood test to first check if I had appendicitis. Of course, I didn’t.

Over the next four years, the pain would come and go. I had what I called “gall bladder attacks”, which seemed to occur after I went skiing or did any other physical activity. I would get so sick that I stayed in bed for hours unable to move. My stomach would swell up and feel bloated, and I would be extremely nauseous. During those four years, I went to different doctors trying to find out what was wrong. Each doctor conducted upper G.I. tests, which always came back negative. All the doctors seemed to believe I was a hypochondriac, but I always knew something was seriously wrong. Through all this I never had any problems with my periods.

By the time I was a senior in college I was sick much more of the time. I would often faint from the pain. I finally went to the hospital emergency room when I got violently sick after taking a nasty fall while downhill skiing. The emergency room physician realized I was really sick, and for the first time, my doctor realized something was wrong with me. I stayed in the hospital for a week of tests, and they decided I should have my gall bladder removed.

However, the surgeon scheduled to do the surgery thought I should wait. I will always be grateful to him. He was very kind and truly interested in me; both as a person and as a patient. I believe it’s because he had four daughters himself. Through a pelvic exam, my doctor finally felt a mass on my right ovary. When I finally did have surgery, I had what was described as a multi-lateral malignant tumor on my right ovary with small tumors AND cists on my left ovary. As a result, I had a complete hysterectomy. I had just turned 22 years old.

Since my treatment, there have been great medical improvements, and doctors are being trained to listen more to their patients. I truly believe that had this occurred to me today, then my ovarian cancer would have been diagnosed much earlier.

What I learned through this experience is that you need to take complete responsibility for your own health care. Just because a physician tells you what you WANT to hear doesn’t mean you should accept the diagnosis if you still feel something is wrong. Women know their bodies and must trust themselves when they think something is wrong.

As a result of this experience, my life has taken a drastically different turn. Because of my hysterectomy, I wasn’t able to have my own children and never married. I have traveled the world and have done a lot of volunteer work with children and adults, who have had bone marrow transplants at the University of Minnesota. In the 1980s I started volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House. I felt this strong need as a cancer survivor to offer my time and energy to other cancer patients. Then in 1989 I became involved with a program through the University called Care Partners. It was as though God had given me this gift to work with these families. I have helped over 25 families from throughout the United States, as well as Canada, Malaysia, Greece, Bolivia and Liberia. Being a cancer survivor, I feel that I can communicate more easily with these families and that they trust and feel more comfortable with me. Often in volunteer situations, it is the volunteer who feels so blessed, and I have always felt this to be the case.

You always tell yourself something happens for a reason, but for the longest time, I couldn’t find a reason for being diagnosed with ovarian cancer at such a young age. Now later in life, I think the reason is perhaps because I am able to help out all these other people whose lives have been devastated with this thing called cancer.

I am passionate about advocating for early detection and further research for this scary disease. My support system is amazing and I have met some amazing and strong women that inspire me to keep fighting. Please let’s work to bring more awareness to this life threatening disease.

I am a 48 year old mother of 4 amazing daughters and a wife of 27 years. My 19 year career included managing for a health/weight loss organization. Being active, eating healthy foods and helping others to achieve their goals were my passions. I loved in-line skating, and even participated in the MS SUN “Skate Up North” (a 77 mile in-line skating event in MN to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis research).

Life was good.

This all came to a screeching halt in January 2006. After a trip to the urgent care clinic with lower abdominal pain, a routine ultrasound revealed “simple ovarian cysts”. I wasn’t convinced. The whispering voice of intuition told me that it must be something more. On the ultrasound table, I demanded a transvaginal ultrasound even though the procedure wasn’t ordered. The look on the technician’s face told me it wasn’t good. I opted not to “wait-and-see” and chose immediate laparoscopic explorative surgery. Upon discovery of a tumor on my fallopian tube, my stunned husband asked the surgeon to stitch me up and we sought the advice of a regional gynecological oncologist.

A complete radical hysterectomy revealed stage III ovarian cancer . This nightmare was followed by 6 months of very intensive chemotherapy, hair loss, vomiting and weight loss. Since that time, I have been on several chemotherapies as the cancer recurs. The toxins in these drugs have been tough on my body. I now suffer from painful peripheral neuropathy, optic nerve damage, fatigue, overall body pain, weight gain and reduced kidney and lung function. In February, the disease and drug toxicity/side effects forced me to give up a full time career I loved, financially challenging my family.

The upside to all of this is that I am now getting to know my family, friends and myself. It’s amazing what you miss when you’ve been a career woman for 28 years. Having been off work since February, I spent time on me and the last PET and CT scans showed no evidence of disease! I am choosing to ignore the doom and gloom of cancer statistics. Instead, I am focusing on good health, lots of positivity and laughing…and really living in the moment. While I will never be able to strap on my in-line skates again, I CAN ride my bike and life weights, and I CAN focus on healthy eating. I intend to beat this thing, and given the gift of stress-free living is a great start.

This July (2010) I have chosen to represent Wisconsin and all ovca survivors at the 2010 Advocacy Day in Washington DC. Our Wisconsin Senator, Herb Kohl, sits on the Appropriations Committee, which determines funding for the Ovarian Cancer Research Program. I intend to share my experience and concerns in hopes of spurring him to push for an increased budget so we can all fight this nasty disease!

I believe I can…WE CAN…beat this!!

Less than a week later, we were all in the doctor’s office listening to him tell us that the cancer had returned with a vengeance and there was nothing that could be done. This disease is a sneaky, vicious killer and MUST be stopped. More effective treatments and even a cure MUST be found.

My mom last her battle with ovarian cancer on July 20th, 2009. She always faced it bravely and optimistically. She was a true inspiration and I miss her every day. Her struggle has inspired me to do more…. to try to reach more people and get the word out…. until we can finally look back at this disease as just a bad memory.

I LOVE YOU MOM!

Story submitted by Philip Kendal

Sometimes I feel like I can remember everything that happened so clearly, other times it feels like a blur or maybe if I close my eyes, like it really didn’t happen at all.

I went alone to my appointment. It was routine procedure, that is until the actual exam. I’d known I had put on some weight, but put it off as holiday weight – you know, lose it later. Immediately my doctor started questioning me, and surprisingly I started to realize I was uncomfortable a lot, couldn’t sleep on my stomach…things I didn’t really take seriously.

One week later, on a Thursday, I went for my ultrasound. My follow up appointment was scheduled for the following Tuesday, but that afternoon my doctor’s office called and asked for me to come in the next day.

From that point on everything went so fast (though most people thought it could have went a lot faster).

The mass was on my right ovary – 17cm.

My surgery, scheduled for February 27, was just 10 days after my 24th birthday.

Though my doctors never said the “C” word, I could tell that’s what they were thinking. Even after the surgery, after they confirmed it, he only said it once, right after I came out of surgery, when my throat was still to sore to respond. I think that was easier for him. So instead he just held my hand while I cried (or at least tried, it hurt my stomach to cry to hard).

I already knew, as did my family, that if it was cancer I would have a total hysterectomy. And I did, two weeks later. It was never a choice for me, I am blessed with two beautiful children, and like my oncologist said, if I wanted to gamble, I needed to go to a casino. Everyone that knows me, knows that I am not a gambler.

I would be lying if I said that I don’t regret having my hysterectomy. At 24, I am surrounded by girls my age having babies, or talking about the possibility of having a baby, so I am sad, but I am also here. It was the easiest and hardest decision I have ever had to make. I ask myself, “If I hadn’t rescheduled my appointment would everything be different or the same, just a few months earlier?”

Whatever the case may be, I am here, with my family, still making memories (and of course getting check-ups every three months!). With the year now coming to an end, my resolution is to share my story in hopes that it will bring ovarian cancer to everyone’s attention and find a cure for this awful disease.