Lifting the weight of the silence

Deirdre Newman

It’s known as the silent killer because symptoms of ovarian cancer

often don’t appear until the cancer has progressed to an advanced

stage.

For Corona del Mar resident Merle Tabor Stern, it was almost four

years from the time she first started experiencing symptoms until she

was diagnosed. And after surgery and chemotherapy, Stern has been

cancer-free for eight years.

Last year, Stern co-founded the Orange County Ovarian Cancer

Coalition. Its mission: to pump up the volume about this disease.

This weekend, its method is pumping iron through a workout fundraiser

in Costa Mesa.

In addition to raising money, the event at Simply Shapely Fitness

for Women will help women focus on their bodies, which is imperative

in the pursuit of recognizing and fighting ovarian cancer, Stern

said.

“Here I am today, screaming from the hilltops to please, please,

please pay attention to your body, because we, as women, are 100%

responsible for our welfare,” Stern said. “Don’t be shy about asking

questions and asking for tests, even if the doctor says you don’t

need it.”

Stern’s frustrating odyssey began in the early 1990s when she

began having symptoms, including bloating and bleeding. She was in

her early 50s at the time. Neither her regular gynecologist nor

another one she went to for a second opinion diagnosed her with

ovarian cancer.

It wasn’t until July of 1996, when she was on an airplane flying

to the East Coast, where she lived at the time, that the disease made

itself apparent to her in the form of extreme abdominal pain, she

said.

“I was hyperventilating to the degree that the man sitting next to

me felt sorry for me,” Stern said. “The pain was horrific.”

Doctors found a tumor on one of her ovaries and after surgery, it

was determined to be ovarian cancer.

“The excruciating pain was: part of the tumor was breaking away

from the ovary, and so it was settling in another part of the body,”

she said.

After a complete hysterectomy and a few weeks to heal after the

surgery, Stern started a six-month chemotherapy treatment.

Last January, Stern came across another ovarian cancer survivor in

Anaheim Hills, Laura Stecher, through an international newsletter

about the disease. They decided to start a coalition with five other

founding members to educate women about the silent killer.

The coalition has held a few fundraisers, but Sunday is an

inaugural workout fundraiser. For $30, participants will get a

30-minute round of circuit training, which is a combination of

cardiovascular exercise and strength training.

While the workout club is only for women, it will open to men for

the first time Sunday, just for this event, owner Missy McCann said.