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Please join us and walk, stride or stroll to raise funds for research to fight Ovarian Cancer in Memory of Janis Warren on Sunday September 21, 2008 at Drake Sport Park in West Bloomfield, Michigan at 9:00 A.M.
Janis died April 8, 2007 at the age of sixty after a dehumanizing eighteen-month struggle with Ovarian Cancer. Her grandson had yet to start talking, and her family had yet to mature. She had survived breast cancer. She had lived her live healthfully, maintaining her exercise regimen until a few weeks before her death, in spite of chemotherapy and in spite of radiation therapy. She went regularly for health check-ups but even so at the time of her diagnosis her disease had already progressed. Janis had thought her vague symptoms of abdominal discomfort were a part of growing older. There is no reliable method of screening for Ovarian Cancer, of detecting the disease early enough in its course to make a difference. Janis’s final gifts to us were the example of her resolve and determination and her words. “You will be just fine when I am gone,” she had said. “Take care of each other.”
We are not fine. We are not fine to think that her death might have been preventable had there have been a reliable screening exam. We are not fine to think that her death might be without gain. We are not fine to think that other women have and will have the same struggles that Janis did—the debilitating course of the cancer followed by a premature death.
In the memory of her example, in the sadness over her death, in the hope that we can prevent this from happening to other women now and in the future please join us for The Janis Warren Walk in support of research for early detection of Ovarian Cancer. The funds raised will support research at the Barbra Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute where Dr. Michael Tainsky is developing a simple blood test which could be provided by a doctor’s office to detect the cancer at its earliest stages. We feel confident in his research which has already demonstrated some success.
We want to thank you for your support in this cause and look forward to walking with you on September 21, 2008