Shaving my head to fight ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer is easy to miss, but hard to treat.

Two of my mum's best friends were both diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer in the last few years. Their persistent symptoms were overlooked and misdiagnosed until a cure was impossible. I'm angry. I want to stop their story from being the norm, and make life a bit sweeter for others like them.

That's why I'm shaving my head (and donating my hair: www.freedomwigs.com). I have two goals:

1) To start conversations about the symptoms of ovarian cancer. Women need to know the signs to have a hope of catching it in time.

2) To bless women who have an incurable ovarian cancer diagnosis with the opportunity to spend quality time with their whānau.

In Aotearoa, ovarian cancer kills more women than the road toll. Most cases are only diagnosed once the cancer is already widely spread, when it's too late for a cure. This is partly because the symptoms are similar to many other ‘female complaints’. Another reason is there's no population screening test (a cervical smear does NOT detect ovarian cancer).

Early detection is vital to survival, and that depends on us recognizing the symptoms and knowing our own normal. Watch this video to learn the signs: https://youtu.be/dOoIkpv-L5M

How will your money be used?

Every $150 we raise will be gifted to ovarian cancer patients and their whānau when they book a TimeOut holiday. TimeOut is a charity that makes privately-owned holiday homes available for free to terminally or incurably ill people, giving them the gift of stress-free quality family time for a few days. Reaching $2250 would mean 15 gifts of $150, lowering the barrier of holiday food/travel costs for 15 families facing a limited time with a precious woman in their life. https://timeoutnz.org/

I will personally offset the 5% Givealittle fee, so that every dollar you donate reaches the cause.

If you feel you can't donate, please consider having a kōrero with a friend about ovarian cancer. We don’t talk about it enough, and most women can’t name any of the symptoms.

Thank you so much!