Asbestos in powder — a lifetime of pain

Re: “$550M awarded in lawsuit linking cancer, talcum powder,” July 13.

At the very least, Johnson and Johnson owes an apology to women with ovarian cancer for denying the fact that its talcum powder contained asbestos.

As a teenager in the 1950s, I was encouraged by my mother to use Johnson and Johnson baby powder for feminine hygiene, never dreaming that it would be the cause of bilateral ovarian cancer by the age of 33 that would haunt me for the next 40 years.

Most ovarian cancers are detected at menopause, and fewer than 17 per cent of women survive. At diagnosis, I had two children under 5, and was told that I had two to six months to live by the late Dr. Jack Stenstrom of Victoria. The following 12-year nightmare saw two major operations in Vancouver for tumour removal, massive radiation and chemotherapy by injection and orally before I was declared “cured.”

Then the results of the radiotherapy caused more tumours and multiple adhesions, while the chemotherapy caused loss of feeling in nerve endings. Travel insurance is out of the question, and the stress and anxiety on my late parents, my husband (himself a surgeon) and our children has been unbearable.

I am 77 years old with incurable vaginal cancer, and nothing would please me more than for Johnson and Johnson to apologize for knowingly using asbestos in their product and caring more about profit than safety. There is an old saying: “She who pays the piper, calls the tune.”

I have paid dearly and now call for an apology. Mary Spilsbury Ross Saanich