About a year ago my cousin Maureen passed away from ovarian cancer, and our family has taken on the mission of spreading awareness of BRCA, a genetic mutation that is closely linked to ovarian cancer. They now have a simple blood test which can let people know if they have the BRCA gene (which increases your chance of ovarian cancer by 50%), but not many people - including my cousin - even knew/know that such a test exists. Ovarian cancer is called a "silent killer" because of the lack of symptoms. When Maureen was diagnosed, she was already at stage 3. If she had had the test done, she would have been able to prevent the cancer from even having a chance to harm her.
Maureen's husband Mike and his oldest son, Joe recently completed this incredibly powerful video which you can now find on YouTube, and Joe told their story at the National Ovarian Cancer Conference this week in Washington DC. I encourage you to watch it and please spread the word to all the women in your lives. We can't have Maureen back, but by spreading the word and educating people we may be able to help other families avoid such senseless tragedy.
The photos below were taken in Phoenix in January of 2009, 5 months before Maureen passed away. She is photographed with her first grandson, Aiden. I love you Casey family!
PLEASE WATCH AND SHARE THIS VIDEO!
