The White Shirt Campaign is a significant moment to bring ovarian cancer to the forefront of the country’s conversation, to highlight exactly why ovarian cancer patients can no longer be left behind and why funding vital research is the only answer.
As we embark on the 15th White Shirt Campaign with longstanding partner Witchery, we lean on the collective effort of the influential campaign ambassadors dedicating their time and platforms to create a choir of voices, speaking up about ovarian cancer and vital research. This year, five courageous women join the choir of women to wear the Witchery White Shirt and share their personal and powerful stories in the national spotlight.
Introducing 2023 White Shirt Campaign OCRF Ambassadors: ovarian cancer patient Leane Flynn, ovarian cancer researcher Dr Maree Bilandzic and ovarian cancer survivors, Ilana Maizels, Kelly Wieser and Candice Hung who are amplifying their voices this campaign to ensure future generations no longer face a life-threatening ovarian cancer diagnosis.
Their journeys of heartache, pain and perseverance represent countless unique ovarian cancer stories across the country and around the world. As their stories will illustrate, no one ovarian cancer experience is the same and this disease does not discriminate.
Ovarian cancer's life–altering, and disruptive nature does not end with the patient; it also changes the lives of their nearest and dearest – partners, daughters, sons, friends, colleagues and more. A reminder that each statistic is not simply a number, it is a person – a woman or girl that has been diagnosed or lost to ovarian cancer, a person that is loved by many.
We join Leane, Dr Maree, Candice, Kelly and Ilana, through sharing their experiences, as they make sure that one day the place where all human life begins is no longer a place where women’s lives end.
Here are their stories.
Leane Flynn – ovarian cancer patient
I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer aged 49 years in April 2017. It came as a complete shock, as I was otherwise extremely healthy.
What started as a routine visit to my GP to confirm what I thought were signs of menopause ended with me being told I had a large tumour on each ovary and another tumour growing between my liver and diaphragm.
Once you have heard the words “you have cancer”, life is never the same again.
After a large 12-hour operation it was discovered that I had Stage 3C Advanced Serous Ovarian Cancer.
I have been told that the cancer is incurable and that I am terminal – there is no hope of remission or a cure. My cancer is not genetic, they don’t know what has caused it, and this is frightening because with no early detection test and very vague symptoms it means that all women and girls are vulnerable.
I am currently on weekly chemotherapy, and I have been under some form of treatment for the past 5 years. The cancer has never fully left me, so my health has not been good. Constant chemotherapy affects me physically every day and living with cancer is putting pressure on my mental health.
I am the mother of three beautiful daughters, and I’m fiercely determined to see outcomes for ovarian cancer detection and treatment change for their generation of women and beyond.
I am determined that the same wonderfully high survivability rates realised by other cancers, such as breast and prostate, be realised for ovarian cancer, the cancer I’ve come to learn is the most lethal gynaecological cancer. The cancer that will one day take my life.
Dr Maree Bilandzic – ovarian cancer researcher
During my final year of study, a close family member fell ill and passed away from cancer. It was a rapid process and one that I still feel I haven’t been able to digest. From then on, I knew I wanted to work in cancer research and improving patient outcomes with a particular focus on women’s health. As I was looking for opportunities, I was really shocked to discover that survival rates for ovarian cancer were so poor, and there was a low level of research opportunities available in the area when it was and still is so desperately needed. I felt like I could make a positive impact in this area.
We have an incredible community of ovarian cancer researchers here in Australia, to be able to represent the scientists who have dedicated their careers to improving the outcome for people with ovarian cancer is an absolute honour, if you look at the list of OCRF funded researchers past and present, it's an incredible group of humans.
Talking about the progress we have made in ovarian cancer research is all made possible due to campaigns like the White Shirt Campaign.
The way we treat ovarian cancer has not changed in over 20 years and put simply, these treatments are ineffective and inadequate. Majority of our patients present with recurrent and resistant disease and are left with limited treatment options. In fact, in over 90% of patients treated for ovarian cancer, the disease will come back.
We are looking at ways to improve therapy response and survival for ovarian cancer. We have discovered targets that work to improve the efficacy of current treatments. I hope that in the future ovarian cancer is no longer a terminal disease, but one that we can manage with effective treatments.
Knowing I am contributing to something that is advancing our knowledge and that will change the outcome for people with ovarian cancer is incredibly fulfilling.
CANDICE HUNG – OVARIAN CANCER SURVIVOR
I was diagnosed in 2017 with Adult Granulosa Cell Tumour (AGCT), Stage 1 at age 37 with no obvious symptoms other than not being able to fall pregnant.
Before I was officially diagnosed, a routine ultrasound during my fertility treatment picked up an unusual growth in my right ovary. I did a follow-up MRI which shockingly came back saying that everything was normal. Had I ‘listened’ to this error, I may not have discovered the tumour, but I sensed that something may not be quite right, so I decided to have a laparoscopy as recommended by my fertility specialist to have a good view of what was going on.
My fertility specialist was shocked to find something unusual in my ovary and had it tested immediately. The period of 3 weeks where we had to decide on the course of treatment was one of the hardest that me and my family have had to go through.
We were having to face the potential of not being able to have another child, confusion around the actual nature of the tumour and also trying to figure out how to share with our 6-yo daughter what was happening to mummy.
In the end, the team of doctors were exceptional and decided on a conservative treatment of removing the affected ovary only and no further chemotherapy required. Due to the early detection of my tumour, it had not spread and the type of tumour was found to not be responsive to chemotherapy. We were so thankful and 9 months later we conceived our second naturally – a complete miracle.
Another aspect I am very conscious of now is the impact of cancer diagnosis on family and friends of the patient. Six months after my operation I was back in good health. My husband then began to experience severe health issues that we could not diagnose. Thankfully, and only through good connections, we met with a fabulous psychiatrist who diagnosed my husband with PTSD due to the stress that had occurred a few months prior, but not really addressed. As soon as that was acknowledged, he was able to make a slow but sure recovery.
This has made me very aware of the need to support the whole village surrounding ovarian cancer patients.
I celebrated my 5-year anniversary of the cancer diagnosis in July 2022 and my oncologist has declared that I am clear. However, due to me only having one ovary, I will be taking 6-monthly tests until I reach menopause.
My outlook on life has completely changed. My positive outcome was due to pure luck. However, we need more than luck to change the lives of thousands of women who will be diagnosed over the next few years.
KELLY WIESER – OVARIAN CANCER SURVIVOR
I was diagnosed with Stage 2C Mucinous Ovarian Cancer in November 2021, at age 26.
After I presented to the Emergency Department with excruciating pain, caused by an ovarian torsion, I was operated on and the surgeon found a 22 centimetre-width mass, which was ultimately a mucinous carcinoma; a rare form of ovarian cancer, which predominately affects younger women.
A month after my first surgery I had an abdominal hysterectomy, which included the removal of seven organs in total to reduce the risk of this cancer returning, as the reoccurrence rate for the stage (2C) and above is high. After eight weeks of recovery, I began my chemotherapy journey. Chemotherapy was the hardest challenge I have faced in my life. Being 26 at the time of treatment, I found it extremely difficult to go through the process of losing my hair and letting those walls down, despite knowing it was lifesaving. Having a four-year-old daughter, it was important to be honest about what I was experiencing.
After the first round of chemotherapy, I was so unwell that I wanted to give up – I felt nauseated all the time, I had no appetite, and the fatigue was debilitating. The fact that my choices in relation to future children had also been stolen from me in an instant is something that I am still dealing with. Every time I look at my beautiful daughter and think that the ability to give her a sibling has been stolen from me, I feel a wave of sadness. I am a midwife, and my very job is a constant reminder of this fact. At the same time, I am so incredibly grateful for the ovarian torsion that led me to the ED that day.
There are many, many families that are living without a mother because of this insidious disease that does not present until it is too late.
I like to reflect on the fortunate aspects of my illness, the fact that I was able to be diagnosed relatively early, my treatment was finished within 6 months, and I am now disease free and able to move on and enjoy my beautiful little family. It is an absolute blessing for which I am thankful for every day.
This has inspired me to raise funds for an early detection test for ovarian cancer and help raise awareness of the disease.
If we as a community can raise vital funds for research, we together can potentially help save lives of many women across the world and prevent women from having to experience the treatments that I did.
ILANA MAIZELS - OVARIAN CANCER SURVIVOR
My birthday was coming up and I never celebrate my birthday normally, but for my 50th I said, ‘This is one I want to spend with my friends and family’. We started thinking about a nice gathering as well as an overseas trip. We had so many plans, I don’t even remember them now.
Then cancer came and changed things.
At the time I was going through menopause and there were a lot of changes happening to my body. My period was getting lighter and lighter, but it hadn’t stopped completely. I sometimes felt bloated, and I’d lost my appetite; I’d forget to have lunch. Those kinds of things. But I started to realise that I had some symptoms, like unusual bleeding, that I thought maybe I should actually check with my gynaecologist.
In the appointment, he told me, ‘Look, I don't think it's anything, but I think you should go and have an ultrasound to see if there is a cyst’. I wasn’t too worried, and I said, ‘Okay, I will do that next week’ but he said ‘No, no, you have to go now’. He called a doctor he knew and got me an appointment that afternoon. During the ultrasound I knew that something was wrong as soon as I saw the doctor’s face. I said to her, ‘Look, I'm a big girl. You can tell me’. She said she was concerned by what she saw.
I thought it was probably just ‘women’s issues’. Instead, this new doctor told me I had a really big cyst on my right ovary with some blood flow in it, which is a suggestion it could be cancerous. I ended up being diagnosed with triple negative ovarian carcinoma.
I hated every second of chemo. I hated losing my hair and just not being myself. I hated feeling weak. In the beginning, of course, you dread losing your hair; I remember looking at myself when I was bald, and I couldn't recognise the reflection of myself. But later on, you understand that hair is not the most important thing.
Today I think, yes, I had cancer and it consumed my life for a little while, but in the end, I’m not defined by my cancer. It was just something that happened to me.
After my ovarian cancer experience, I learned gratitude, to accept my condition and to rely on the fantastic medical team.
I’m sharing my experience to help highlight the importance of an early diagnosis and effective treatment. When I look back to that time, I realise how easy it would have been to have ignored my symptoms.
I want women to know the symptoms and to not leave diagnosis until it's too late. Being aware of the faulty BRCA gene has helped my family.
View the 2023 OCRF White Shirt Campaign Ambassadors in this year's campaign motion below.
This White Shirt Can End Ovarian Cancer
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