slockwooclimbs's Cancer Blog

March 22, 2008

Getting Ovarian Cancer in the Media. Views: 116

Back in September I was photographed for an article that was going to be featured in Women’s Health Magazine. The article was to highlight my story with Ovarian Cancer and the work I’ve done with the HERA Foundation. The idea was to get more women to learn about the disease and give people information on HERA and the great work they are doing with their climb4life events. I had a real live make up artist and a real live photo shoot while I was climbing in Utah. It was weird for me to say the least. I don’t usually where make up when I climb. A few months later I got the photos – the climbing shots were so cool because the landscape was so beautiful and the photographer was brilliant.

The article hit the stands this week. It is great that a national publication with 1.1 million subscribers had a one page article about Ovarian Cancer in it. I only wish they mentioned the symptoms and gave more information about HERA. It also would have been cool if the photo they used was one where I was actually climbing. I can’t for the life of me figure out why they used one where I’m just sitting there, but I’m not in the magazine business.

I’m super grateful that the magazine did the story. I think getting women to think about their ovaries is a good thing.

The best part about the WH article is that my hometown newspaper did a big story that took up half a page! The story was very thorough about my experience with the disease, the connection to rock climbing and HERA. There was even a side bar that listed the symptoms and the need to see a gyn-oncologist when ovca is suspected. I couldn’t even fit the whole article in my scanner. Kent Jackson is a very talented writer, he did a beautiful job telling my story. I wish I could write like him.

No, Hazleton isn’t a big city and the paper doesn’t have 1.1 million subscribers, but people read it. My mom already got a call from a friend whose friend has what they think might be a cancerous mass on her ovary. She asked my mom for the name of my doctor. Apparently before reading the paper, the woman had no idea that having a gyn-oncologist perform the surgery increases survival rates so drastically. (I wonder why regular gynecologists don’t often mention that to their patients!)

Getting the message out there, that is what this is all about. One woman is going making the right decision to seek out adequate care because of this article. I’m very proud I had the opportunity to help.

I’ll be raising money for HERA Foundation again this year, but more importantly I’ll be volunteering to raise awareness.

I hate this disease. I hate all cancer. Too many of my friends have lost too much. Since I was lucky enough to get healthy, I am fighting.

For more information on HERA Foundation please visit www.herafoundation.org .

Posted on March 22, 2008 at 7:57:37 AM by Sam ( Link to this post.

Getting Ovarian Cancer in the Media., Post a comment.

2 comments)

You are so beautiful! Those are amazing shots indeed. I never thought that it would be a big deal to lose an ovary. Now I have one left and it could impact my whole life; happiness included if I were to lose the the remaining one. Spread the word!

My mother jokingly said `Man up!` before one of my sonograms last month. I couldnt help but smile at the irony.