Alana, 53 years

It is hard to know where to begin when you have to talk about a life threatening disease. I guess my first message is know your medical history, your own and past generations.

My experience starts with the fact that my family have a long history of pre-menopausal breast cancer, having already lost a mother and sister to the disease and having a niece contracting it at 28. So we were a vigilant family, checking ourselves for any changes in that area. However I had no idea of the link between ovarian and breast cancer. I have since had a blood test for the Bracca 1 or 2 gene.

The odd thing is that I had major surgery earlier in the year to remove a fibroid and told the surgeon to leave the ovaries if they were all right. Consequently they were left - and five months later I was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer.

We can always go through the "if only's" but not much point. I would however like to warn women firstly, to be aware of a strong family history. Talk to your doctors about things like this, don't think that you may be just becoming menopausal if the tummy starts to grow and you are becoming a bit tired and uncomfortable. There were no great signs for me and of course having had an operation earlier in the year meant that the doctor did not suspect that was the problem. I was sent for abdominal x-rays and a liver function test and told to take more fibre in my diet. Not getting any better, the next step was a colonoscopy, until one of my doctors ordered a CATscan and a blood test for CA 125. The rest is history.

I am still waiting for the results of the genetic test, but had known the strong links I might have decided to have my ovaries removed during the fibroid operation. We women are so busy that we often wait too long before we visit the doctors. My advice is, if you notice your body changing, don't think you are being paranoid. Visit your doctor immediately.

I find it an even harder road when the specialists tell you that there is no cure and that they will work on putting you into remission but with a very poor prognosis. I had never heard of this disease before and now I am discovering that it is worse than breast cancer, for at least with breast cancer they are making great inroads into survival rates. Not much has been done about ovarian cancer and yet I find out that thousands of women suffer from it.

I would like to encourage women to push for research and early detection of ovarian cancer. Don't sit back and say it won't happen to me because you never know, and it is difficult to detect early, and therefore difficult to cure. It is also vital that if you are unfortunate like myself and do have the disease that you seek a support group. I have found them to be most beneficial when you are feeling very much on your own. It does help to keep your life a little bit more in perspective."

Email: awilson@vtown.com.au

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