Ovarian Cancer Awareness Day

TALK PEACH OVARIAN CANCER VIDEO TVC CAMPAIGN 2020

Today is World Ovarian Cancer Day . Ever heard of it?

1 New Zealander dies every 48 hours from it, it's higher than both our road toll and melanoma rates, yet has for too long been largely unpublicised and overlooked.

Is it shame and stigma around women's gynecological health that has got us to this point? Staying silent is harming our communities, it is killing our wahine.

The five-year survival rate for ovarian cancer in New Zealand is 39%. It has a 70% chance of recurrence post treatment, the survival statistics for ovarian cancer have remained virtually unchanged for 30 years. This is literally a crisis point in terms of advancement in survival rates for cancers.

Breast cancer used to have a similar outlook but now thanks to incredible advocacy, large scale fundraising and an immense amount of research the breast cancer 10 year survival rate is 75% or 91% when detected via a mammogram.

New Zealand is lagging behind both the USA and Australia in survival advancements, Australia's Federal Government announced at the end of 2019 the first ever substantial funding grant specifically targeted for ovarian cancer — $20 million for research, with a focus on early detection.

There is NO screening tool for ovarian cancer; a fact many are shocked to hear, 85% of women diagnosed are diagnosed in the later stages of disease, this statistic is gut wrenching.

A cervical screening test will NOT pick it up. But there are ways to change this, money for life saving and desperately needed research, education and awareness, we need to be talking we need woman to know what to look for and how to advocate for themselves, we need to educate women on their bodies and have conversations to end stigma.

We can now have open conversations about breasts, mens rugby teams are wearing pink, the stigma has gone and this is what is needed for the pink bits below too! Lastly we need funding to support those diagnosed; being diagnosed with ovarian cancer or any of the other 4 (vulval, vaginal, uterine and cervical) is an isolating time there are no big groups out there doing marathons for ovaries, vulvas, cervixes or vaginas, which is a travesty considering cervical cancer which is a PREVENTABLE cancer is the biggest cancer killer of Māori women in New Zealand.

Talk Peach acknowledges and applauds the tremendous outcomes in the fight against breast cancer and believe with similar commitment and resources we can achieve the same for ovarian cancer.

Talk Peach is founded and run by ovarian cancer survivors. We know all too well the devastation that comes with this diagnosis, and the heartbreaking feeling of being overlooked.

We are desperate to educate to break down the stigma stopping life saving conversations, this is a national issue, it's about equity its about our wahine, it's about feminism, we need to act! Tomorrow we lose another mum, aunt, sister, daughter, gran, wife to this insidious disease, ovarian cancer is the deadliest of all women's cancers and largely one of the most underfunded.

Today is World Ovarian Cancer day and February is ovarian cancer awareness month. We desperately need these dates to be as bold as other cancer awareness months.

“In 10 years time I don't want to see that nothing has changed I can't bear to see more and more woman dying of something they never heard of , never knew the signs of or that no one cared to research for, it breaks my heart EVERY single day receiving messages from those needing support and feeling like they got the cancer no one gives a shit about or is too scared to speak up about” - Tash Crosby Founder

With ovarian cancer women like me literally don't live long enough to form the army of advocates that our breast cancer whanau have done so incredibly.

It's time to talk ovaries, it's time to talk vulvas, cervixes, uteruses and vaginas

This World Ovarian Cancer Day we kindly ask for your support. Please donate via our ‘give a little’ https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/support-women-with-gynaecological-cancer we are trying to make $10,000 a mere fraction of what other health initiatives make but for us it's a start

Please learn the signs and symptoms of Ovarian Cancer via our educational website at ww.talkpeach.org.nz, it may save you or a loved one the heartbreak of a late stage diagnosis.

Please contact Tash Crosby for more info

tash@talkpeach.org.nz www.talkpeach.org.nz Instagram @talk_peach

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