PERSONAL CAUSE
Mother’s death due to cancer spurs sisters to organize walk
Mother’s death due to ovarian cancer spurs sisters to organize fundraising walk on Sept. 9
When Jennifer Bowness’s mother, Cheryl Clark, started to feel unwell in late 2016, she attributed her lack of appetite, fatigue and bloating to stress, her hiatus hernia and the fact that she was simply getting older.
Clark was eventually diagnosed with late stage ovarian cancer in January, and her family was told she would have to leave their P.E.I. home in Kensington for treatment in Halifax.
“It was a lot to take in,” says Bowness.
“She never left the hospital after she was diagnosed.”
After a rapid decline, Clark died on March 8, just seven weeks after her diagnosis.
“We obtained the results approximately two weeks ago that mom tested negative for the nine most common gene (mutations) linked to ovarian cancer,” says Bowness.
The news brought a measure of relief to the family, but because a family history of the disease is also a risk factor, Bowness says she and her sisters will meet with their family doctors as well as the gynecological oncology team in Halifax to discuss and consider options for further preventative action for themselves, such as surgery to remove their ovaries and/or fallopian tubes.
“It’s scary for us because we are at a higher risk, but there is no reliable testing for the disease,” she says. “
“We really see the need for more research.”
In an effort to take positive action, Bowness and her younger sister, Jillian Forbes, have banded together to organize the Ovarian Cancer Canada Walk of Hope in Charlottetown on Sept. 9.
While the event has taken place in communities across Canada since 2002, this is a first for Charlottetown.
Proceeds will be used to provide support, increase awareness and fund research into ovarian cancer.
“As a family we’ve really become passionate about doing whatever we can to help,’’ says Bowness.
“We saw the suffering that Mom went through and we don’t want anyone else to have to experience that. So whatever we can do to help, we want to do it.”
The sisters have reached out to other families in their region who have also been touched by ovarian cancer to get involved and help with fundraising efforts.
Their own extended family will have a team walking in honour of their late mother.
“I think my father will be very emotional on walk day — which of course will make things even more emotional for us,” says Bowness.
“If Mom was still here with us, she would have been helping us to organize this event. I know she would be 100 per cent supportive. She had a big heart.”
“As a family we’ve really become passionate about doing whatever we can to help. We saw the suffering that Mom went through and we don’t want anyone else to have to experience that. So whatever we can do to help, we want to do it.” Jennifer Bowness