Community Corner

Berkley to Turn the Town Teal for National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

Ribbons throughout downtown are part of a national campaign to raise awareness about 'The Silent Disease.'

The ribbons that will appear throughout Berkley this weekend are part of the Turn the Towns Teal campaign in recognition of National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

Women who have survived the disease, along with their supporters, will hang the teal-colored markers and distribute awareness brochures and symptoms cards Saturday at businesses throughout the city.

"I have met a wide range of ovarian cancer survivors over the last years since my diagnosis (in 2000)," survivor Marcia Gurche wrote in a letter to City Manager Jane Bais-DiSessa seeking permission to hang the ribbons. "The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness and to help protect Berkley area females from late-stage ovarian cancer diagnoses."

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Since March, two women from Berkley have died from ovarian cancer, Gurche told the City Council on July 16, when she received approval for the Turn the Towns Teal campaign. She also wrote that 22,000 women will be diagnosed this year in the United States and 15,000 will die from ovarian cancer.

"It's a devastating disease," but it doesn't have to be, she said.

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Gurche, wrote that like 80 percent of women who have ovarian cancer, she was diagnosed in the disease's late stage. Fortunately, she wrote, she has defied the odds and not suffered a recurrence following treatment.

Now, as a member of the Beaumont Health System One to One ovarian cancer support group and facilitator of a program called Survivors Teaching Students, Gurche is working to help other women detect the disease earlier and increase their odds of survival.

According to Turn the Towns Teal, ovarian cancer is the deadliest of gynecological cancers, and includes the following potential symptoms.

  • Pelvic or abdominal pain or discomfort
  • Vague but persistent gastrointestinal upsets such as gas, nausea and indigestion
  • Frequency and/or urgency of urination in the absence of an infection
  • Unexplained changes in bowel habits
  • Unexplained weight gain or weight loss
  • Pelvic and/or abdominal swelling, bloating and/or feeling of fullness
  • Ongoing unusual fatigue
  • Menstrual changes
  • Pain during sex
  • Back pain

Women who experience persistent symptoms for 10 days or more are urged to consult a gynecologist, according to Turn the Towns Teal.

"Ovarian cancer is often referred to as 'The Silent Disease' as its symptoms are often vague and subtle," wrote Turn the Towns Teal president Jane B. MacNeil in a letter advocating for the campaign.

"There is NO early detection test for ovarian cancer which is why we NEED women to be aware of the known symptoms," she wrote. "If detected in the early stages, the survival rate for ovarian cancer is 90 to 95% which is why this awareness campaign is so very, very critical."

Risk factors include genetic predisposition; personal or family history of breast, ovarian or colon cancer; increasing age; and undesired infertility, the campaign's website says. 

Gurche said the Michigan Ovarian Cancer Alliance will supply the ribbons, awareness brochures and symptoms cards for the Turn the Towns Teal campaign at no cost to Berkley. The ribbons, which are biodegradable and made in the United States, will be replaced if they start to look shabby before they are due to come down at the end of the month, she said.

"This issue is about our wives, our mothers, our sisters," Mayor Phil O'Dwyer said. "Women's health is enormously important and, regrettably, it does not receive enough attention."


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