Cover Girl: Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Well, folks, here it is. Check out the CDC's "Inside Knowledge" PSA ad campaign that I'm "starring" in. Thanks to cancer, I got my BIG modeling break. Ha! If only that were really true.

Seriously, though, playing a small part in the rollout of this important campaign has been a hugely rewarding experience...and is another item to add to the ever-growing list of "why having ovarian cancer isn't the worst thing that ever happened to me." Please check out the campaign site and READ the symptoms of various kinds of gynecologic cancer. You owe it to yourself and the women you love.

Oh, and speaking of women we love, I'd like to give a special shout out to yet another fabulous woman afflicted with this insidious disease: Hang in there and stay strong, Mimi Cheney! (a.k.a my dear friend Ali's 91-year old grandmother who has just started chemo for stage IV ovarian cancer)

Broken Promises: Monday, September 13, 2010

So, once again, I lied. Not too long ago I promised that I would post more regularly leading up to my celebratory triathlon in October and guess what, I haven't. As many of you regular visitors know by now, September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. And so for this recent survivor-turned-activist/fundraiser/budding triathlete, life is in HIGH gear in more ways than one. I'm up to my eyeballs right now with event planning (search Rock, Paper, Coctails! on Facebook and you'll see what I'm working on), fundraising, media outreach and interviews related to my fundraiser and triathlon, and, of course, triathlon training. But, fortunately, life's not totally all ovarian cancer all of the time. Thank God!


I PROMISE to be back soon with the photo highlights (just for you MPR!) of the past several weeks of birthday celebrations, which seemed as though they would never end, Labor Day festivites, events (including Circque du Soleil's OVO and the men's semi finals at the US Open), and much more! Oh, and be sure to check back tomorrow to see how cancer has helped launch my modeling career...

Success!: Friday, October 30, 2009

I'm happily exhausted from the fundraiser I hosted last night to benefit the mission of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance. The event was a success by any measure: many people attended, many people actually shopped, and most importantly, I think most had a lot of fun! I haven't been able to tally the total yet but I think we (me and my fabulous vendors) raised about $1,000, which isn't bad considering I planned it in about a month's time. Of course, after doing a post-mortem with my friend Christy later in the evening, I already know all of things I will do differently for next year's event to make it an even bigger success and to hopefully at least DOUBLE the amount of money we're able to donate.

Below are several shots from the event set-up so you can all see what beautiful and unique items we had on hand. I was too busy greeting attendees and selling drink tickets to take any shots of all of the folks who came but I'd like thank each and every one of them. In particular, I'd like to thank the man who came by with his second wife to tell me, with tears in his eyes, about his first wife's six-year battle with ovarian cancer. She happened to be treated by one of Dr. E's partners. I'd also like to thank the woman who attended who told me about her mother's courageous battle with the disease and how much she appreciated me doing the event. Oh, and I'd like to thank the endometrial cancer survivor who came to thank me for the holding the event, made a large donation, and put out literature about the upcoming inaugural Gyncological Cancer Foundation's Race to End Women's Cancer, which I'm participating in on Sunday, November 8. And finally, I'd like to thank my Aunt Annie, who happened to be in town for business, who surprised me by stopping by with my Uncle Chris (who also shopped for his wife) and purchasing a fabulous (and expensive) necklace from my friend Paula.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the team at Food Matters for their great food and service; to all of my sweet and talented vendors for participating; and to all of my friends, family, and complete strangers for turning out and shopping! You have no idea how much it means to me.

I did a little play on words for the drink tickets. Clever me. I know...not really so clever.

Brooke and Christy figuring out the best way to display all of Brooke's stationery.

(PMC)2's beautiful silver jewelry. Thanks to Paula Coupe for participating.
I love Simple Terms' handmade cards and gift tags. Thanks to Brooke Harris for participating.

Walton Street Stationers has the best selection of cute personalized stationery, napkins, gift enclosures, invitations, etc. Thanks to Nancy Smith for participating and for her constant generosity.

All Dolled Up's unique stone earrings are fabulous! Thanks to Marlea Hebert for shipping her stuff down from Philly for the event and thanks to Brooke, Christy, and Greta for selling it.

I love Wendy Jarmol's stone and gold work creations. Thanks so much for participating, Wendy!

The Grim Statistics: Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The education campaign continues! I found all of this data on the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance's Web site. Here goes:

• Ovarian cancer is the eighth most common cancer among women in the United States (2004).
• Ovarian cancer has remained the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death among U.S. women since 1999. Mortality rates are slightly less for minority women than for Caucasian women.
• Approximately 174,236 women living in the United States have or have a history of ovarian cancer.
• One in 72 women will develop ovarian cancer (lifetime risk). One in 95 women will die from ovarian cancer.
• The overall five-year relative survival rate for all women with ovarian cancer is 46 percent. This means that compared to women in the general population, five years from the time of diagnosis only 46 percent of women with ovarian cancer are still alive.
• However, the survival rate improves greatly to 93 percent if the cancer is diagnosed at an early stage before it has spread. Only 19 percent of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed at this local stage.
• Approximately 75 percent of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage after the cancer has spread beyond the ovary.
• The five-year survival rate for women with ovarian cancer has not significantly increased in the past 30 years—a mere 8 percent.
• Women diagnosed with ovarian cancer from 1975 to 1979 experienced a five-year survival rate of approximately 38 percent. Today this rate is approximately 46 percent.
• The issue of ovarian cancer recurrence is complicated. Research suggests that between 70 percent to 90 percent of all women with ovarian cancer will, at some point, have a recurrence of their disease. The risk of recurrence varies based on multiple factors, including the stage at diagnosis. For example, approximately 70 – 80 percent of patients with optimal stage III ovarian cancer will have a recurrence. In case you're wondering, I'm optimal stage IIC (30 percent recurrance rate)/IIIA and have the desirable synchronous primaries as well, so realistically, I'd put my odds somewhere around 50 percent.
• From 2001 to 2005, the most recent period for which data is available, the median age at diagnosis for ovarian cancer was 63 years. Approximately 13 percent of women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer are 45 years or younger.
• Over the past decade there has been a slight decrease – less than 1 percent per year – in ovarian cancer incidence rates, however, during the same time, the actual incidence numbers increased by approximately 3,000 women.
• During most of the past decade (1996 to 2005), the ovarian cancer mortality rate has remained stable while the breast cancer mortality rate has decreased 2.2 percent per year (1990 to 2005) and the cervical cancer mortality rate has decreased 3.4 percent per year in a similar time period (1995 to 2005).

In case it wasn't clear before, now you know while I'll continue to try to live life to its fullest everyday from here on out AND why I'll be crusading so hard against this cancer for the rest of my days.