Breast Cancer Survivors Support Newcastle Campaign Demanding Funding Fairness for Ovarian Cancer
May 6, 2019
This Wednesday (May 8) on World Ovarian Cancer Day, a group of Newcastle women will launch the Pink Meets Teal campaign which calls on governments and the community to support funding fairness for ovarian cancer research, treatment and support.
Led by Newcastle Citizen of the Year Jill Emberson, thirty women will gather on Hunter Street in pink and teal dresses to highlight the disparity in funding between breast and ovarian cancer and launch a local fundraiser, Fearless Flowers.
Ovarian cancer is one of the deadliest cancers in Australia taking the lives of more than 1,000 women each year but it is also one of the most underfunded, receiving FOUR times less than breast cancer.
Thanks to more than three decades of dedicated fundraising and research, breast cancer now has a 91% five-year survival rate with hundreds of millions of dollars poured annually into treatment and support including dedicated nurses. In contrast, ovarian cancer’s grim outlook has remained virtually unchanged with just 46% of women living longer than five years.
“The Pink Meets Teal campaign will urge governments and the wider community to look below the waist when it comes to cancer funding in Australia and give researchers the money they need to come up with a screening test, run clinical trials and improve management of the disease itself,” says Jill Emberson, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2016.
“The tremendous outcomes in the fight against breast cancer inspire me to think that with similar commitment and resources we can eventually have the same success against ovarian cancer,” Jill says. “I’ve called on breast cancer survivors to help us and am humbled by how Newcastle has responded.”
Other speakers at the Pink Meets Teal event will include ovarian cancer researcher Associate Professor Nikola Bowden and local GP and breast cancer survivor Dr Olga Ostrowskyj.
Pink Meets Teal will take place at 10.30am on Wednesday May 8 outside the Timeless Textiles Gallery at 90 Hunter St, Newcastle East.
