Raising awareness of ovarian cancer in Wales

Alicia is Ovarian Cancer Action’s Wales Regional Officer. Since joining the team in April she has been working hard to raise awareness in Wales and has really hit the ground running! Find out what she’s been up to…

“I’ve been Wales Regional Officer for a little more than three months now and I've already made good progress. Ovarian cancer is the UK’s deadliest gynaecological disease and survival rates are the lowest in Wales, therefore my role is particularly important.

It’s been wonderful to see how keen other organisations have been to publish articles, blog posts and newsletters about ovarian cancer and to receive wonderful feedback from awareness talks and presentations.

I've been working closely with the local Voluntary Council’s health and well-being officers, who have all been extremely supportive. They have helped me to attend a number of groups where I have given talks and presentations.

This has increased our links with GP surgeries and very soon there will be an Ovarian Cancer Action symptoms slide on TV screens across a large number of GP waiting rooms in Cardiff and Caerphilly.

Another exciting step has been successfully securing Ovarian Cancer Action’s membership on the Wales Cancer Alliance. The Alliance is a group of third sector organisations that work in partnership with the Welsh Government, the NHS, local government and other stakeholders, in order to develop and shape cancer policy in Wales.

The Cardiff Ovarian Cancer Support Group have recently asked for our support and I've been working with them to help facilitate and grow their peer support group."

What's next?

"As a member of the Wales Cancer Alliance, Ovarian Cancer Action has been given the opportunity to meet with Vaughan Gething, Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport in the next few weeks.

I also have a number of exciting events planned; info stalls at GP surgeries, hospitals, Age Connect and even IKEA! I'm giving awareness talks to the Female Police association, Unison (Powys) a number of Women’s Institute groups as well as many other community groups.

A specialist nurse has planned an Ovarian Cancer Awareness event in UHW, where she hopes we can ‘ride’ an exercise bike the distance from South Wales to North Wales in one day! We will be giving out leaflets, information and hopefully raising some money for the charity.

Last but not least, I'm always on the look out for more men and women to join our ‘Voices’ volunteers from all across Wales, to help make some noise and raise awareness of the disease. If you’re interested in raising awareness and becoming an Ovarian Cancer Action Voice we would love to hear from you!”

Find out more about what the Ovarian Cancer Action Voices do and how you can get involved