Blog
Read the latest words from key members of the Ovarian Cancer Canada community.
Spring often represents renewed hope and optimism. This year is no exception, as vaccinations to protect against COVID-19 bring us ever closer to a new normal. World Ovarian Cancer Day is on the horizon, and it’s a point of pride for me personally, as Chair of the World Ovarian Cancer Coalition.
With the pandemic continuing to dominate the headlines, I’m writing this with better news. As part of our community, you’re in a position of power. Because your support of Ovarian Cancer Canada is coming full circle.
While other organizations have had to cut back, we have been relentless in delivering progress on all fronts. Though our budget is as lean as ever, Ovarian Cancer Canada is championing the health and wellbeing of those affected by this disease and those at risk for it, while keeping the lab lights on at leading institutions across the country.
Thanks to your support, Ovarian Cancer Canada is standing strong as a beacon of hope for women and families across the country.
This year, the cold weather feels entirely different. With the pandemic keeping us indoors and apart, women and families affected by ovarian cancer can find these days especially difficult. So I thought it high time for a reminder that we are together, even as we maintain safe physical distancing.
The ties that bind us are stickier than any virus, and stronger than any disease.
Imagine if – in just one hour – you could dramatically change the lives of women affected by ovarian cancer. What would you do? Anything, absolutely anything, would be the resounding answer. I know it because I’ve met thousands of courageous women who stop at nothing to help their fellow Teal Sisters.
“Who knows? Maybe we’ll raise a little bit of money, too,” she said with a humble shrug of her shoulders. Today, I still think of those words spoken to me by Peggy Truscott back in 2002 and I get goosebumps. The good kind.
As if living through a global pandemic wasn’t enough, recent events – tragic and horrific – and related headlines have shocked and disturbed many around the world, including us here in Canada. Are we living through a challenging and difficult time? Yes. Is it also an exciting and important time for real, specific, and positive change? Absolutely.
It’s true that a lot can happen or change in a year, isn’t it? 365 days. It sounds like a long time but those days can fly fast in an almost bewildering way.
The theme for International Women’s Day 2020 is “Each for Equal” – and it’s amazing that just three words can convey so much. They speak to the power of both the individual, and also the collective, in taking a stand for change and creating a world that is better for all of us.
For many of us a new year can bring a number of feelings or sentiments. It can bring a sense of expectation; or a sense of closure (or even loss) in one area and a chance to start something new in another; or it can simply bring an opportunity to renew a commitment to hope, and to using every resource possible to persevere against a challenge or struggle that we wrestled with in the previous year and will continue to confront again this year.