Community Corner

Hopatcong Turns Teal—National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

Resident Deanne Cornine helps spread the word.

Last year, Deanne Cornine wondered why teal ribbons hung at a local park. This year, Cornine's the reason they're all over Hopatcong.

Cornine hopes to spread the word about ovarian cancer during September, which is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. She estimates she and friends hung about 500 teal ribbons throughout the borough and Netcong.

"Honestly, we want people to know about [the disease]," said Cornine, a Mount Olive third-grade teacher. "It's known as the silent killer because the symptoms are so silent. You don't think of them as being signs of cancer."

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According to ovariancancerawareness.org, approximately 21,880 women each year are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and, in 2010, about 13,850 women will die from the disease.

Cornine's grandmother, Sally Cleary, died of cervical cancer recently. Cleary had the disease at 26 years old, and it came back at age 79. But she didn't tell anyone for a while. She didn't want to burden her family.

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"She didn't want the family upset," Cornine said. "She just didn't want to go through it anymore. She was going through so much treatment."

Cornine wished she knew more about diseases facing women after that. So she became involved with the Turn the Towns Teal project, helping take down the ribbons last year.

According to its website, Turn the Towns Teal was created by Chatham's Gail MacNeil in September 2007 and had 175 towns participate in its program last year.

Over the last few weeks, Cornine purchased four large spools of cloth to make the ribbons. She enlisted the help of four Roxbury high school children, who spent a few hours tying the ribbons to trees around the area.

Cornine said the ribbons hang in Modick Park, Veterans Park and on all of Hopatcong's welcome signs. She said she also dropped information off at borough hair salons, hoping women would read about the disease.

Cornine's next goal: to bring ovarian cancer education to Mount Olive schools.

"I've been very leery about doing it, especially with an elementary setting with the reproductive organs," she said. "But I want to get the awareness into the high school level. They're at that age. They take [sexual education]. They should know about ovarian cancer and cervical cancer.

"That's my goal for next year."

The symptoms of ovarian cancer are very subtle, which is what makes it so difficult to detect. According to The American Cancer Society's Web site, the symptoms are bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, trouble eating or feeling full quickly, and urinary urgency or frequency. These symptoms tend to be persistent when caused by ovarian cancer and if a woman has them almost daily for more than a few weeks, she should see a doctor, preferably a gynecologist.

For more information about Turn the Towns Teal or to make a donation, click here.

Additional reporting from Madison Patch editor Rick Burchfield.


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