March is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and with today being Mother’s Day, it is a fitting time for me to start fundraising and raising awareness for this horrible disease. Early diagnosis is key with ovarian cancer, so please be aware of the symptoms for yourself and your loved ones; PERSISTENT BLOATING, ALWAYS FEELING FULL, TUMMY PAIN & USING THE TOILET MORE are the main ones. Ovarian Cancer affects woman of all ages, so please bear in mind the cherished women in your life and donate to this worthy cause via the link attached at end and please help spread the word, all assistance is much appreciated. 

Happy Mother’s Day to my own unbelievable mum, the heartbeat of our family. A strong, brave, caring and inspiring mother and to put it quite simply, a lovely woman In January 2020, Mum was diagnosed with Stage 3C High Grade Serous Ovarian/Fallopian Tube Cancer, just as she was on the verge of stepping into retirement. Mum underwent major debulking surgery the following month losing/partially losing circa 10 organs and after an extensive period of recovery to rebuild her strength, she endured six taxing months of chemotherapy. As tough as it is to watch your best friend go through this struggle, I was/am full of admiration for how she handled it all, especially with the added complications Covid-19 has brought into play. Mum has been doing quite well since her op and subsequent treatment, but a recent scan has shown a recurrence with Mum’s cancer and she has another six months of chemotherapy to endure now in due course. There are not enough words I can say to describe how important mum is to me and her battle is my battle always. Please keep her in your prayers

Ovarian cancer requires a lot more action re awareness, research and to provide support for women suffering from the disease. There are a number of fundraisers I’d like to carry out to raise vital funds for ovarian cancer, but with Covid-19 in existence, most of these aren’t an option currently. With March being Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, it’s a good time for me to make a start however. In line with many ovarian cancer charities, I’ll be doing at least 10,000 cardiovascular steps per day this month, but I’ll be pushing this out as much as I can. 14 days in and I’ve ran/walked over 200km/250,000 steps, so well on target thus far. Thanks for reading, spread the word and please donate whatever you can.

***Monies raised will go to Gynaecology Cancer Services at Belfast City Hospital and the charity, Target Ovarian Cancer.