Our speaker on 6 June 2019 was Jane Ludemann.
Jane was diagnosed with ovarian cancer two years ago at the age of 32 and she told us about her life prior to her diagnosis of cancer, her fight with the disease, and her story in creating an initial charity.
Jane is a young woman who has everything to live for. She has a mathematics degree and works as an optometrist. She has been a keen tramper, half marathon runner and rock climber. As well as this Jane has been a competition debater.
We heard how Jane was finally diagnosed with ovarian cancer after numerous Doctor’s visits where she was told there was nothing wrong with her. When given her poor prognosis Jane did a huge amount of research into the disease which is the 5th most common cause of cancer death among women. She told us that half of all women with low grade serious ovarian cancer are diagnosed in their 20s and 30s.
Jane has flown to Texas to meet a world-renowned expert in the field. She has had two lots of cancer surgeries and lost 10% of her bone density in 9 months.
Jane painted a fairly grim picture of a current cure for the disease with only half of affected women living longer than 8 years after their diagnosis. Jane is however optimistic that a cure may be found, with the advances in drugs etc over recent years. She believes that the key to this is more research and with this in mind she has set up a website and has already raised some $100,000.
Jane clearly has incredible courage and strength sand members gave her a prolonged applause to her emotional but also informative address.
Malcolm Liddell
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