It may be a disease that affects women, but this year Ovarian Cancer Australia are encouraging men to help raise awareness.
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February is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. The theme is ‘know, ask, act’.
An estimated 1,580 females will be diagnosed with the disease this year, and the chance of surviving at least five years is only 44.4 per cent.
Black Pepper Dubbo held a ‘morning teal’ on Thursday to increase awareness of the disease, and to raise funds for Ovarian Cancer Australia.
Ovarian Cancer Australia ambassador Brian Mockler lost his wife Margaret to ovarian cancer in 2014. In hindsight Mr Mockler said he looks back on the early symptoms and wishes he had paid them closer attention.
“Margaret had a classic number of some of the known symptoms; some feelings consistent with feeling bloated, occasional unusual internal pelvic discomfort, episodes of nausea and some fatigue,” Mr Mockler said.
The most frequent symptoms of the disease are abdominal pain, persistent bloating, needing to urinate often or urgently and feeling full after eating a small amount.
“We’re trying to encourage women to be aware of the symptoms, to be aware and do something about it,” Mr Mockler said.
This year, Mr Mockler is also trying to get men on board with the campaign to watch for symptoms in their loved ones.
Black Pepper Dubbo’s Annette Rawson said a lot of the women who attended the morning teal and shared their stories said they wished they had known the symptoms of the disease earlier.
While it was still only early days, Mr Mockler said he was hopeful men would latch on to the cause.
Last year Black Pepper aimed to raise $70,000 for Ovarian Cancer Australia. After reaching the goal before Ovarian Cancer Month even began, Ms Rawson said this year the figure had been raised to $150,000.
The store had already sold out of their teal scarves, Ms Rawson said, but were still selling the fundraising cookbooks and ribbons.
Food for Thursday’s morning teal was donated by Coles.