A year ago, I was halfway through my active treatment and was getting ready to take part in Ovar-Dressed London, an event in Regent’s Park organised by Target Ovarian Cancer. I looked back at the pictures recently and smiled. Even though I’m not where I want to be right now, that moment was life-affirming.
Recurrence
I’d been preparing for the potential eventuality of a recurrence, but the confirmation of it wasn’t any less of a shock.
It reminded me of when I was initially diagnosed with in October 2023. I didn’t know what stage 3 meant, or have any clue about ovarian cancer. It was all a huge shock, especially as I have very little history of cancer in my family and I don’t have the BRCA gene mutation.
Since then, I have read up on everything about ovarian cancer and asked a lot of questions. Knowing more about the disease and understanding it has been really helpful throughout my diagnosis. I have felt more in control at a time when everything has felt out of control.
Recently I have started to experience some of the symptoms I was dealing with before – chronic diarrhoea and a bloated stomach (this was a build-up of fluid in my body known as ascites). Back then, I had been dealing with these for three months, I didn’t know what was wrong with me, and neither did the doctors despite five visits to the GP and one to A&E. This time, I knew and felt dread.
I am waiting for a scan and depending on the results of that I’ll either go on hormone treatment or back to chemotherapy, I did 18 rounds of this before and had major surgery.
Life-affirming
As I take the reality of a recurrence in, I can hear the buzz of Ovar-Dressed in the background, and it lifts my spirits. I can feel the joy, support and emotion on the day as I dressed up and took part with my friends. It was exciting and fun, and it got me out of myself.
Although I can’t take part this year, I would recommend you do. As I say, it is life-affirming. And the money raised will go towards stopping this disease in its course.
Ovar-Dressed London
Ovar-Dressed London takes place in Regent's Park on Sunday 19 October. Go 5k or 10k in your best ovar-the-top outfit to help us stop ovarian cancer devastating lives.
