By Goya Dmytryshchak
Altona woman Neona Stiles is celebrating 10 years in remission from cancer and will be a special guest at this month’s long-table supper at Williamstown.
February is ovarian cancer awareness month and, for the cause, each year the Rotary Club of Williamstown hosts a brunch on the pier behind Seaworks.
This year’s event, from 6pm on February 22, has changed to a long-table supper.
Ms Stiles, 46, said by the time most women were diagnosed with ovarian cancer it had spread through the body because there was no early-detection test. “In December, I celebrated 10 years of remission, which is a miracle,” she said. “It’s incredibly unheard of. My medical practitioners don’t know how I did it.
“The complication with ovarian cancer is that there’s no early-stage screening test so, more often than not, when it’s found it’s in its advanced stages.”
A pap test won’t detect ovarian cancer.
“Mine was found at the pointy end of stage two because 10 months earlier I’d already had a journey with uterine cancer. So, if you like, I was incredibly in tune with my body and my medical practitioners were keeping a close watch on me,” Ms Stiles said.
Long-table supper organiser Yvonne Moon founded the RoCan trust for ovarian cancer research with Williamstown Rotary after losing a close friend to the disease 14 years ago.
Currently, the survival rate is less than 30 per cent, but Ms Moon says early detection could lift this figure to more than 85 per cent.
Thirty cyclists are volunteering for next month’s annual Rotary bike ride up the Tasmanian west coast to raise funds, and they will be at the long-table supper, too. For details, email yvonne.moon@bigpond.com.
