With help from family, friends and other supporters, Danette Anderson has raised more than $100,000 for the Vasculitis Foundation.

The Alamance County woman has no plans to slow her efforts. Instead, she and other organizers are busy preparing for another fundraiser in May.

This year’s event will be the 11th Annual N.C. Fundraiser for Vasculitis. The first 10 events, held since 2002, have raised a total of $101,492.

Anderson has Wegener’s Granulomatosis, which the Vasculitis Foundation groups with related diseases in promoting education and research and in supporting those who suffer from disease. Wegener’s Granulomatosis involves inflamed blood vessels, and can result in a variety of severe health issues.

“I’ve had sinus surgery, lung surgery (and) all kinds of chemo treatment,” Anderson said.

This year’s fundraiser is planned for May 5 at the Burlington Shrine Club. Anderson said a motorcycle run has historically been the focal point of the event. but with so many of the runs organized in the area, she and other organizers are shifting the focus to food, music, and drawings for prizes. A motorcycle ride will still be included if the weather is good that day.

On Friday afternoon, Anderson had set up at the outside entrance of Hamrick’s at Holly Hill Mall in Burlington, accepting donations (people who gave got a brownie or cookies), passing out education information and promoting the May 5 event. The store had a sidewalk sale going on, making it easier for Anderson and family members to get people’s attention.

Nothing has been more important than support from her family, Anderson said. that includes her parents, Danner and Shirley Ferguson; her husband, Randy Anderson; two daughters, Lisa Hall and Kimberly Anderson; two brothers, Craig Ferguson and Jay Ferguson; and four grandchildren, Lexie, Abby, Kayla and Isabel.

“I’ve had nieces running lemonade stands, to selling tickets, to everything,” she said.

The fundraiser typically draws people from other states who have connections to the disease.

“we have people coming from Virginia (and) some from South Carolina,” Anderson said. “One couple came from Kentucky one year.

“This is supposed to be the biggest fundraiser that the Vasculitis Foundation has that is ongoing,” Anderson said.

Anderson, now 54, first went to the doctor in 1996 with the symptoms that led to her diagnosis with Wegener’s Granulomatosis.

In 2005, a study grant awarded to Duke University’s School of Medicine for research into the disease was named in her honor.

And at a symposium about the disease in Chapel Hill last year, Anderson was recognized for surpassing the $100,000 mark in raising money for the foundation.

“that really shocked me,” she said.

Mike Wilder can be reached at mwilder@thetimesnews.com or 336-506-3046.

‘It was the ‘are you pregnant?’ comments that did it,” says Suzy Norman. four years ago, the former primary school teacher from east London noticed her stomach was often unusually bloated; by Christmas 2008, it had swelled so much that her family, friends and even strangers began to ask when her baby was due.

Norman, 37, knew she was not pregnant. For months, her doctor had insisted she had irritable bowel syndrome. Unconvinced, she went to A&E. After a series of scans, one of her ovaries was removed and she was then told she had ovarian cancer. It was so advanced that the only option was to remove the other ovary and her womb; she then underwent three months of chemotherapy. “It was just horrendous,” she says. “I lost my hair; I had painful, aching legs. I went from being a busy teacher to just flopping on the sofa. but it did seem to work: I’m pretty well now.”

Norman is relatively fortunate to have caught the disease in time: the symptoms of ovarian cancer often go unrecognised by women and GPs, and it has one of the worst survival rates of all cancers. according to the charity Target Ovarian Cancer, around 6,500 women in Britain are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year, and 4,400 lose their lives to the disease. the five-year survival rate in the UK is just 36%: that is one of the lowest in Europe, and has changed little over the past three decades. By way of comparison, UK survival rates for breast cancer have risen over the same period from around 50% to more than 80%.

The poor survival rate for ovarian cancer is strongly linked to late diagnosis because of a lack of awareness of the early symptoms, which include persistent bloating or abdominal pain; difficulty eating or feeling unusually full; and needing to urinate often or urgently. according to a study last month by Ipsos Mori for Target Ovarian Cancer, just 3% of women feel confident in their ability to recognise these symptoms (by contrast, more than three-quarters of the 1,004 women questioned recognised that a breast lump could be a sign of breast cancer).

For Annwen Jones, chief executive of Target Ovarian Cancer, increasing awareness of these early symptoms is a key factor in improving women’s chances of survival. “Our study showed a really positive increase in awareness of ovarian cancer among GPs,” she says. “But we need to improve awareness among women generally. if ovarian cancer is diagnosed in its earliest stages, the survival rate rises to 70%. the sooner we can diagnose, the more women will survive. It’s that simple.” the charity is campaigning for ovarian cancer to be included in the government’s be Clear on Cancer public-information project, which has seen TV ads made about the symptoms of other cancers, such as bowel cancer.

Rona Passmore, 50, a part-time support worker for adults with disabilities, from Dunbar, knows only too well how important it is to catch ovarian cancer in its earliest stages. in August 2008, she realised her stomach was often distended, but put it down to the menopause. One night, however, she woke with excruciating abdominal pains. the next morning, she went to see her GP; after ruling out a pregnancy, he sent her straight to A&E, suspecting ovarian cancer. His suspicions were confirmed. “I had a scan,” Passmore says, “which showed that I had a huge ovarian cyst. the doctors advised removing both the ovary and the womb; when they found a tumour attached to the cyst, they also advised a course of chemotherapy.”

The treatment was successful – Passmore is now down to six-monthly check-ups. her oncologists were very impressed with the speed of her GP’s response. “They kept saying how lucky it was that my GP had sent me straight to hospital. I knew about cervical cancer and breast cancer, but pretty much nothing about ovarian cancer. Now, I’m telling everyone about it.”

Norman is sure her own lack of understanding of the disease, and her GP’s failure to correctly diagnose her symptoms, led to a serious delay in treatment: two years elapsed between first noticing the bloating and admitting herself to hospital. “I just didn’t know anything about ovarian cancer,” she says. “I was busy, I was getting on with my life, as we all do, and my GP was very tardy in admitting that anything was wrong.

“I can’t help wondering,” she says, “about what might have happened if my doctor hadn’t been so slow. My husband and I hadn’t really been thinking about having children, but of course we did as soon as we realised that we wouldn’t be able to. Perhaps, if the cancer had been found earlier, they could have saved one ovary. we might have still been able to have children. Not knowing for sure either way is the hardest thing of all.”

• For more information, visit: targetovariancancer.org.uk.

Cancer victim says Prospect are superb

5:26pm Wednesday 11th January 2012 in News

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

Tony Sheen has praised Prospect Hospice for the care it has given him during the year after he was told he would have just six months to live.

Honda worker Tony, 53, from Stratton, was given a prognosis of just six months more than a year ago when he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in November 2010.

“For me, it’s our own way of putting something back.”

- Tony Sheen

he was admitted to Prospect Hospice in Wroughton during the weekend before Christmas when the pain from his symptoms became too great to bear.

With the support of the expert teams at the hospice, Tony’s symptoms were controlled and managed to such an extent that he was able to return to the family home on Christmas Eve, and stay there until he was re-admitted to the hospice on Boxing Day.

he said he has defied all expectations thanks to the hsopice staff, as well as his family, friends and colleagues.

he has also shown his appreciation of the hospice’s care by donating £407 raised for him by his workmates towards the charity’s care.

“I really can’t thank them enough for all that they have done for me, and for my wife Carolyn too,” he said.

“The support has been incredible. That said, I was reluctant at first to accept that I needed the help of the hospice at all. I just wasn’t ready to hear it.”

Tony’s care since his diagnosis has involved the support of a Prospect Nurse Specialist – one of the community-based nurses who plan care packages for patients throughout their illness – and an occupational therapist, who has helped him and his wife adapt their home to meet his care needs.

Tony has also sought the support of the clinical psychologist who works with patients at the hospice and, when he has been at the great Western Hospital, he has been supported by the Prospect team there too.

During 2010, Carolyn regularly attended the monthly Carers’ Cafe that brings together people in the new and unfamiliar role of carer to share their experiences and offer mutual support. She has also attended a carers’ course run by the hospice’s family support team, and has also worked with the hospice’s welfare and benefits adviser to help lessen the financial concerns that are often well-known to carers.

Throughout 2011, the family has chosen to show its support for Prospect Hospice through a variety of events, with Tony’s full approval.

Son Luke and son-in-law Gareth both took part in the Swindon Half Marathon to raise funds in October, while future daughter-in-law Laura ran the same event for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Luke also took part in a sponsored rugby match for the Prospect Barbarians team in November, while Becky is planning a netball tournament for later this year.

Tony said: “I am very proud of them for getting involved because my illness could happen to anybody, and I want other people to receive the care I have had.

“For me, it’s our own way of putting something back.”

Tony has thanked the many friends he has made working for Honda over 25 years, where workers have been highly supportive ever since his diagnosis.

he also praised his GP Kerry Wallis, and the Jupiter Ward team at GWH, where Carolyn works.

he said: “There are many more I could thank too – and, of course, Carolyn especially. As long as I feel as well as I do now, I want to go on for as long as possible, enjoying the time that I have left with my family and friends.”

Read these News stories