Channel 5 news. Don't Blink!!

[citrine]

Arranged at short notice, I'm on for about 45 seconds but it was about 2 hours in the making. It isn't my back garden, it's the local park.

channel5.com/shows/5-news/f...

[Hidden]

Hi Mary,

Well done, I just clicked on and listened but couldn't get a picture DOH!

But I will try again love x G x

I have just clicked on again and you look ( and sound ) lovely ( nice park too LOL ) xx

[Hidden]

Hi just looked at ch5 news website and it is featured. Well done, you looked fantastic and well. We need a ovacome glamour calendar. Love Paul xx

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Ha ha ha...it would be you to suggest that. Maybe something along the lines of The Full Monty instead? There are enough glamour calenders around without our motley crew of scarred tummys (our American sisters call it the front butt). We could call it the Ovacome Prize Guys!!! Time for all you males to show us what you are really made off!?! Best & hugs to you both, Cxxx ps grovelling apologies if I've offended anyone - I interpreted Paul's remark as a joke, and responded accordingly....

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Just a bit of fun, calendar girls for oc. Grear idea ha ha

[ChrisH in reply to Hidden]

I think we'll need considerably bigger buns!!!!

[JAWilson]

Well done Mary you came across really well, good for you!

I also saw Annie briefly on Sky news this morning. So good to get the symptom message out there as well as the news of a promising early detection screening method.

Hugs

Janice

[Zannah]

Hi Mary,

Well done you came over well.

Love

Zannah x

[Hidden]

Hi Mary

Well done you did great, thanks for reminding people about OC. It is nice to see some news about our forgotten

disease

Regards Barbara.

[Dyana]

Mary , really well done , great . Dy xx

[ChrisH]

Just watched it, really well done

Chris xx

[jennybutler]

Well done you do look well,nice to see ovarian cancer in the news love Jenny xxx

[Hidden]

Sorry, I forgot to say I also saw the clip, you came over as polished, professional, and succinct. The reporter lucked out when she found you. You made the point firmly and vividly. You also showed us all that life can go on and be good, despite late stage ovarian cancer. Congratulations!!! Cxxx

[drdu]

Well done, Mary. Very well said, and you looked great too! The sooner that sort of screening comes in the better. It won't pick up all ovarian cancers, as a few don't present with a raised CA125, but it will certainly pick up most of them. Two levels three months apart seems a good idea. A pity that the UK trial doesn't finish till 2015.

Best wishes.

Eileen xx

[Hidden]

Well done Mary. Good to get the message across. You do look great!

Monique x

[citrine]

Thank you all very much for your kind comments. I was a bit nervous but it was quite painless in the end. I should also give credit to lovely Lidja from Goldilocks salon in Muswell Hill, who managed to fit me in for an emergency hairdo on Saturday She is the best.

Something to mull over perhaps.The age group in this study was 50-74 and it was limited to post menopausal women. I was 55 at the time of diagnosis but not yet postmenopausal, I was still going through it so wouldn't have been eligible to take part in such a study. It has been said that women who have a late menopause and/or started their periods early have an increased risk. I started at 12 and didn't have children and I do sometimes wonder it there is a connection.

I mentioned this to the reporter. Also mentioned that although it is more common in the over fifties, younger women can and do get the disease as we know too well.

I know we'll all be keeping a close watch on developments.

Love Mary xx

[Hidden in reply to citrine]

Your experience mirrors mine, except I was diagnosed when I was a couple of years younger than you in 2009. Because I was perimenopausal aged 44 (having tried and failed to have children) initially I took HRT, but stopped just before my 50th birthday. Before that I had been diagnosed with fibroids and a small ovarian cyst, which came and went a couple of times before it eventually seemed to disappear for good. I then lived in Scotland, my gps and the local hospital gynae unit were excellent.so, although I had PHI, I left my health care to the NHS.

We moved to Yorkshire in Jan 2006, but for a couple of years stayed with our local practise in Scotland - for various reasons we commuted to and fro.

We changed GPs, etc., in Jan 2008.

And then, despite using our PHI for every single specialist referral, a succession of medics failed to spot increasingly obvious signs of my growing ovarian cancer in three separate scans (1 US and 2 MRIs.) During that time, it progressed from stage 1a to stage 3c. When I eventually had surgery, the diagnosis was OC stage 3c with grade 3 serous histology...

Nobody joined the dots. I had gotten so used to relying on excellent free health care, I didn't bother about the symptoms I was experiencing increasingly frequently. I said, several times to several different doctors that I simply did not understand why it was that my fibroids, which had shrunk after I stopped HRT and went thru' the menopause proper, seemed to be growing again...

The moral of this story is that, I remember in the 1970s/80s when I was studying and then beginning to find my way in the wider world, there was a feminist movement dedicated to the need for women to know their bodies themselves. The main thrust of it was against breast cancer and cervical cancer, but it extended to birth control, fertility issues, and so on. I vividly remember attending a workshop in Camden held by a couple of female doctors in which the art of self examination of the cervix was demonstrated.

It is so sad for so many women that, at least as far as ovarian cancer is concerned, more than 40 years later, the lessons of the 70s feminists, who frequently had to endure chauvinism and ridicule as they went about their work and their lives, still haven't been learned today.

The current DoH leaflet is a joke. It doesn't even mention ovarian cancer on the cover.

More has to do be done. And fast. Sorry for this lengthy reply, but in the circumstances, I felt that it was worth explaining what happened to me, and what I know has happened to so many others, in detail. Cxxx

[citrine in reply to Hidden]

Absolutely right. Sometimes it feels like age discrimination as well. After a certain age we become invisible. It is true that OC is comparatively rare but I can't help thinking that if the same number of deaths occurred each year in a younger age group because it wasn't being diagnosed early enough, there would be more support from the general public.

Mary xx

[Hilsuk]

Brilliant !!! You sound and look amazing x

[charlie12]

Mary

As the other ladies have said you looked fantastic and came across so well.

Charlie xxx

[Whippit]

Dear Mary

I've only just returned to radio, mobile and internet connection as I've been off sailing for the weekend. Brilliant you were featured on Channel 5. I've just clicked on your URL but only have the written report so haven't seen your clip. I'm just so delighted that Ovarian Cancer is in the news. There was apparently an article on a new treatment in the Observer on Sunday which was reported by my oncologist at the RM. This all augurs well for us all.

Loads of love xxx Annie

[citrine in reply to Whippit]

Thanks Annie, yes, OC being featured in the news is always a small triumph. Hope you had a great weekend on the water.

Love Mary xx

[Yogini01uk]

Well done Mary you look really good and put the point over.

Annie I just clicked on Mary's link and there's a video there and it works!!!!! I'm using my iPad so maybe that's why??????

Love Jean. Xxxxx

[Solange]

Rather belatedly - well done, Mary, you looked fantastic and came across really well. How frustrating for you to only appear foe 45 seconds when it took 2 hours to film. I bet you said a lot more - why do they cut things back so much? I well remember the occasion years ago, when my husband was interviewed for TV, and it took a similar amount of time. When it was about to start I said to my Daughter, "Quick, run and get the boys", so she did - and all the children missed it. They were so disappointed and it wasn't shown again, in those days.

Best wishes, Solange

[Solange]

Well done to you, too Annie. Saw your piece on Sky, through yahoo, and thought you looked great and came across very well, too. Fell in love with your handsome dog.

Hope you enjoyed your sailing weekend, Love Solange

[Fitzy]

Well done Mary. You looked lovely and so relaxed. It may been a short interview but it got the message across xxx love Col

[Anne-2]

Hi Mary

You were really good and the whole item covered the story far better than the BBC which just mentioned the research with no explanation at all as to what it was!!

Regards

Anne xx

[Hidden]

Well done Mary.You are a natural on tv and as everyone else has said you looked fantastic.

Anne x

[Cathy1]

Dear Mary,

Just watched your interview. Well done and delighted you are looking and obviously feeling very well.

Best wishes,

Brid

[Hidden]

Super clear message and you looked amazing!

Love

Sue xxx