After huge success last year, organizers are moving their gala lunch for ovarian cancer to Tigh-Na-Mara and adding more fun events.
“Last year we sold out a month ahead,” said Sharon Wood, Ovarian Cancer Canada society member and co-organizer. “This year we added more tickets but we’ve already sold about a third and I think they’re going to go fast,” she said urging people to get theirs soon.
Called “The Lunch — A Fashionable Afternoon by the Sea,” there will be a keynote speech by noted surgeon and researcher Dr. Sarah Finlayson and CBC radio host Sheryl Mackay will emcee the fun-filled afternoon with a three course gourmet lunch, silent and live auctions, a new fashion show staged by The Bay and more.
Wood, who spearheaded the first lunch after losing her mother to ovarian cancer, said there are some great developments and new research which Dr. Finlayson, an assistant professor in the UBC faculty of medicine, will speak about.
Even though the statistics are bleak, killing over 1,700 Canadian women a year, the long term survival rate is 90 per cent when it is diagnosed early. Education and awareness are considered the best tools for improving survival.
The biggest problem, Wood said, is that the symptoms are so varied, vague and easily missed that even some doctors are unfamiliar with them.
So organizers invite everyone to help spread awareness, gather their friends and family and get the $100 tickets and information for the September 24 event at www.thelunch.ca or from Helen at 250-757-9549 or helen@thelunch.ca.
They raised almost $18,000 last year and hope to do at least as well this year with all proceeds going to Ovarian Cancer Canada, which supports women and their families living with the disease and research for a cure.
