I find full-volume swearing both useful and cathartic at times – particularly when something feels devastatingly unfair. A diagnosis of stage 4 primary peritoneal cancer in your early 30s fits the unfairness bill very snugly. So ‘Jeeze Louise’ doesn’t quite cover it as cursing and invectives go but I do want to tell you about the most brilliant woman, Louise Wisson and her #Hearts4Eve campaign.
The statistics around ovarian cancer are brutal. Survival rates are low, few treatments are available and few in the pipeline. What we often hear about with ovarian cancer is that diagnosis comes too late – either because a woman hasn’t recognised the symptoms, or because her GP didn’t.
Every 2 hours, every day, in the UK a woman dies from ovarian cancer. That’s twelve mothers, daughters and friends a day – and it’s definitely twelve women too many. Over 7000 women a year receive a diagnosis of ovarian cancer, and that’s a tough statistic, but what’s really tough, is that over 4,300 of these women will die.
Louise Wisson was 33 when she was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. There is no Stage 5.
It took more than three months to reach that diagnosis – with lots of too-ing and fro-ing to doctors; and explorations for cystitis, liver problems, gastric issues and numerous tests to check out the range of possibilities: multiple blood tests, a chest x-ray, an ultra sound – until in December 2012, on her 33rd birthday, a CA125 test alerted that it might be cancer.
The unwanted birthday ‘gift’ of a cancer diagnosis has continued giving more, and tougher, news over the past three years. The remarkable thing is, Louise has responded to this journey with such positivity by giving back – to a number of charities including The Eve Appeal, and to women of today and the future through supporting research into prevention and early diagnosis. She’s a fierce and inspirational Eve champion.
Louise created her Positive Mental Attitude blog after nine weeks of weekly chemotherapy and total debulking surgery. And after eight cancer-free months, she was rewarded with another lousy ‘gift’ – the cancer had returned and Louise faced another 18 weeks of chemo.
The chemo, alongside a maintenance drug Anastorozole, was toxic. During this phase of her treatment, Louise was offered genetic testing to inform future treatment choices. With this came the news that she carried a BRCA1 gene mutation.
The impacts of finding you carry a mutated gene are huge – not just for yourself but for your entire family. A giant rock was hurled into Louise’s very close family pool and the ripples have spread outwards. Her mum, dad and sister were tested. Her mum and sister both found that they also carried the faulty gene.
Jeeze Louise, that’s a blow and difficult to process – particularly for your mum.
While her mum Britt-Marie Herring, made the swift decision that she didn’t want to have any risk reducing surgery as a fit and health 70 year old, her sister Carol, still in her early 40s had more difficult choices to make.
Last Autumn, Carol was in the midst of consultants appointments and her first surgery was booked in, when she found a lump in her breast and was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer.
Jeeze Louise, what next?
Once we’ve decoded this – we can be really clear on prevention. And that’s our ambition, to prevent the female cancers that make up nearly half of the cancers that women get.We all want the very best treatment and outcomes for gynaecological cancer. However, what we really need to do to ensure we make the biggest impact on saving women’s lives is to understand the range of risk factors for developing these diseases. Louise knows how vital this is too, so she put raising £10,000 for our forward looking medical research top of her bucket list. She smashed that target, and with her support, alongside thousands of others, The Eve Appeal is now on its way to compiling a picture on the role that hormones, genes and lifestyle play on gynae cancer development.
Jeeze Louise – even the Prime Minister knows how incredible she is.
I’ve had many ‘Jeeze Louise’ moments throughout this very tough cancer journey, and a very proud one came today. What next in terms of cancer surprises? Recognition from the Prime Minister of her astounding positivity, inspiration and advocacy. Today, Louise Wisson has been honoured as a Point of Light.
Please support the #Hearts4Eve campaign – it really is our best chance of making a difference on women’s cancers.