Understanding Ovarian Cancer
- Cancer is isolating, Canadian triathlete Gillian Roberts says, but she found the strength to beat ovarian cancer in her identity as a powerful athlete.
- Gillian, from British Columbia, Canada, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in June 2019, but today, she's cancer-free. She’s now continuing her healthy lifestyle by continuing her workouts and eating a healthy plant-based diet.
- Ovarian cancer has often been called the "cancer that whispers" since women often don't experience symptoms until the disease has reached its late stages, although it’s unclear what stage Gillian’s cancer was when she was diagnosed.
Gillian, from British Columbia, Canada, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in June 2019, but today, she's cancer-free.
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"Cancer is very isolating," Gillian previously told SurvivorNet, "and pretty much every bit of normalcy that you have in your world is just gone all of a sudden."
However, for her: "Being able to hang onto this tiny part of me (being an athlete), of going out for a jog or going out for a hike, really helped me lift myself up every day to be able to tackle some of the things that I had to then tackle," she said.
"I trained all the time when I wasn't working," she continued, "and I was training really hard to get my personal bests and everything. And a lot of self-worth is based on that when you're an athlete, a lot of self-worth of, 'How good am I? How fast am I?'"
Ovarian Cancer Survivor & Canadian Triathlete Gillian Roberts On Fighting Cancer With Strength
But, true to her first statement, going through ovarian cancer treatment isolated her. It took most of her energy and she found it difficult to continue with her previous training regimen.
"During treatment, I couldn't do the types of strenuous activities I normally would want to do," she said. "So I would mostly just be doing short jogs. I started a blog to help motivate and educate about the issues that cancer patients are dealing with."
Even though she wasn't able to perform at her best, her positive outlook coupled with her athletic identity also helped her beat ovarian cancer.
"I'm trying to show what any cancer journey could be like," she said. "I've definitely always been a really positive person and positivity is a skill. It takes practice, but I think it just comes from me every day, waking up and choosing to have a mindset that's going to serve me."
Now that she’s beaten cancer, she’s continuing her healthy lifestyle by continuing her workouts and eating a healthy plant-based diet.
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Understanding Ovarian Cancer
Ovarian cancer has often been called the "cancer that whispers" since women often don't experience symptoms until the disease has reached its late stages. (It’s unclear what stage Gillian’s cancer was when she was diagnosed.)
The term ovarian cancer refers to a number of different tumors that grow in the ovary. The ovaries produce the sex hormone, estrogen, as well as eggs. Every woman has two ovaries, one on either side of her uterus. The fallopian tube picks up the egg from the ovary and carries it to the uterus for fertilization.
Genetic Testing Can Offer Valuable Information About Ovarian Cancer Risk
Many ovarian cancers actually begin in the fallopian tubes. A few cancerous cells first grow on the fallopian tubes and then, as the fallopian tubes brush over the ovary, these cells stick to the ovaries and eventually grow to form a tumor.
Dr. Monica Vetter, a gynecological oncologist at Baptist Health Medical Group in Lexington, Ky., previously told SurvivorNet that most ovarian cancer cases are caught in stage 3 or stage 4, like Sophie, as it's a difficult cancer for which to screen. And about 70% to 80% of those women are going to have their cancer come back within the first five years.
However, despite these daunting statistics, genetic testing for ovarian cancer can lead to life-saving actions and screening tests for early detection. And when it comes to ovarian cancer, which is curable in more than 90% of cases when diagnosed early enough, genetic testing can be a valuable option.
Contributing: Anne McCarthy
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