Monday, May 27, 2013
Although I only got to know Charlotte a few years ago, we became good friends. We met at the restorative yoga class at Cornucopia House Cancer Services in Durham and discovered that we had many things in common, the most obvious being that we were diagnosed with late stage ovarian cancer about the same time in 2008. We eventually would go have lunch together as we never could get enough talking done after class and we shared our individual experiences living with this relentless disease. It was so helpful to connect with someone who really understood what each of us had been through while traveling this cancer journey. We also laughed a lot and just generally enjoyed each other's company.We began discussing how much we tired of living in "cancer world" and we wished we could do something for other women diagnosed with ovarian cancer who did not have the good support nor the means to live as well as we could with this awful disease. I had felt for some time that we ovarian cancer survivors needed a strong symbol as the ribbon (even though ours was teal), in most people's minds stood for breast cancer. The No to O(varian cancer) symbol just wandered into my thoughts one day. Charlotte, being the caring person that she was, became interested in the idea of our starting a program to help other women and we spent countless hours discussing this idea. No to O is a reality now and we held a very successful fundraiser in the spring and have funded a program with some of our proceeds for Cancer Services of Forsyth Co.(where our event was held) to help women with ovarian cancer .Charlotte was too ill to participate but she did plenty of good cheering for our cause. Even though my No to O cofounder won't be with us physically, we will carry on with our mission to spread awareness of this dreadful disease and to try to help other women who have been diagnosed with it to have a better quality of life. I will miss my partner in this mission terribly ,but I am even more committed to carrying on in her honor.
