Remembering cancer campaigner Fi Munro

On July 7th 2020, we said goodbye to cancer campaigner and award-winning researcher Fi Munro. 

Fi was diagnosed with non-genetic stage four ovarian cancer just four years earlier, aged 30, and it changed her life forever. Little did we know then, how much she would go on to change other people’s lives too. 

Fi was a talented author, researcher and campaigner for women with ovarian cancer. Whilst undergoing treatment, she channelled her energy into helping others and delivering random acts of kindness, whilst encouraging others to do the same.

Alongside her treatment, Fi began distributing cash envelopes to strangers as random acts of kindness, some of whom went on to return the favour by raising thousands for cancer charities.

When Fi started her ‘Random Acts of Kindness Mondays’ she posted: “Now, I want more than ever, to help make this precious world a better place than I found it 35 years ago!” I think we all agree that Fi did just that, and the ripples of her kindness will continue to spread outwards for a long time. 

How Long Have I Got?

She also started teaching children and adults yoga, and even wrote a book called “How Long Have I Got?” Fi was a passionate campaigner to improve treatments for ovarian cancer, and wanted to normalise subjects like colostomy bags and terminal cancer. 

In 2017, Fi featured in A Time to Live, a BBC documentary that explored the lives of 12 remarkable people celebrating life, and making the most of the time they have left. In it, Fi explained: “I look back on who I was before and just think, it’s crazy how I was, just so busy, always wondering what people thought, always wanting to be the best at everything and now realising that actually none of that actually matters. I realised I have a choice, I can either give into this and just be miserable, or I could be positive.”

“If my choice had been to live longer and not have cancer and not have the insight that I’ve got, I wouldn’t take it. I think I would rather have my cancer diagnosis and have changed my life the way I have. I was kind of wasting life before, and I would never have appreciated life if it hadn't been for cancer so cancer has definitely been a gift. If my exchange for that is time then I’m willing to accept that gift.”

World Ovarian Cancer Day

To mark World Ovarian Cancer Day in 2019, Fi and friends hit the streets of Glasgow in teal underwear to help us hand out 295,000 white roses, that’s one for every woman living with ovarian cancer across the globe. Each rose had a tag with the symptoms of ovarian cancer attached to its stem. With a disarming smile and open heart, Fi educated hundreds of people about ovarian cancer, despite the rain!

Fi’s husband Ewan has asked that people remember her by doing good deeds for other people. “Please don’t send flowers or cards, but instead be inspired by Fi,” he said. “She asked that you all share and honour your love for her by giving a random act of kindness in her name: phone a pal, leave flowers on a bench, buy someone a coffee - do whatever you can to make someone else smile.”

In one of her final posts, Fi said “I feel so much love. If I could tell you one thing, we waste so much of our lives not focusing on love. Love is the answer to everything, and I just wish I’d known that for 35 years. I feel incredibly blessed for the life I had, I wouldn’t change a thing... Apart from love more. If you take nothing else away from my life, please just love more.”

It feels only fitting to sign off as Fi would end all her messages, with love and light.

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