They call it the silent killer and you need to know about it.
The day started out just like any other. I groggily turned off my alarm, put my feet on the ground, and began my morning routine. Suddenly, I felt a pain in my abdomen so intense I couldn’t stand up straight. I got to the ER as fast as I could. Less than 24 hours later, I was lying on an operating table. surgery at AdventHealth Cancer Institute, formerly Florida Hospital Cancer Institute, Dr. Holloway took out part of my small and large colon, performed a total hysterectomy, and removed 13 cancerous tumors from my body. Thirteen tumors that, until that moment, no one knew existed.
I was diagnosed with stage III ovarian cancer. I was shocked – there were no warning signs and my healthy lifestyle didn’t prepare me for this possibility.
As a registered nurse, I understand my body and take care of it. I’m a regular at the gym and I eat a healthy diet. Ovarian cancer does not run in my family and I have annual pap smears and mammograms. I even visit the dentist twice a year! But that clearly doesn’t stop this ruthless disease.
Finding out that I had ovarian cancer was a complete shock – but your generosity can change that for other women.
This year, 22,000 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Currently, there are no early detection methods for ovarian cancer and women can live with a cancerous mass for years without any signs or symptoms.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Your generous support of gynecologic cancer research at AdventHealth gives scientists the tools they need to discover methods of early detection and treatment for ovarian cancer. You can help save hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. If early detection is the goal, then research is the path to get there – and you are the road builder.
Women like you, your wife, your friend, your sister, your daughter – they need you. Will you help pave the way? This can happen to even the healthiest women, but you can do something to change that right now through your support of gynecologic cancer research at AdventHealth.
