News

Jo, our chair of trustees, tells us more...

May is always a really poignant one for everyone at the Dianne Oxberry Trust, it’s when we mark our anniversary – we were founded seven years ago on World Ovarian Cancer Day. 

On that day, 8 May 2019, Dianne’s husband Ian and some of her close friends, including me, came together and decided to create something positive from the awful tragedy of her death from ovarian cancer. 

We were determined to bang the drum and shout loudly and proudly about the symptoms to look out for, having learned from Dianne’s experience how important early diagnosis can be in saving lives. 

Now, seven years on, we are proud to be continuing that legacy in her name – and wow, have we done that in style recently! 

Launching our special free symptoms diary

Someone dies every two hours from ovarian cancer but if diagnosed in its earliest stages, more than 90 per cent survive for five years or more.  That’s why, on World Ovarian Cancer Day, we were really proud to launch our special symptoms diary.   

It’s a free tool that you can use to help track any symptoms you're experiencing, so you can see your GP armed with all the information you need to discuss. 

We launched it with lots of conversations with media in our region, and were really grateful to lots of our friends and supporters for sharing across social media – everyone from Lorraine Kelly to Dan Walker, Katie Thistleton to Dion Dublin, and lots more people shared, meaning we reached hundreds of thousands of people on the launch day alone. 

We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who took the time to share it.  Being aware of anything that doesn’t feel right and seeing your GP is so important. 

Hitting the road to Spread the Word

We also hit the road and headed to Cumbria for a roadshow, sharing the Spread the Word message with local people.  

Ovarian cancer is 22 per cent higher in Cumbria than the rest of England so we’re on a mission to make sure as many people as possible know the signs and symptoms to look out for.   

Thanks to everyone who came to see us.  

It was lovely to meet so many people and share our free goodies to help you remember the WORD acronym.

We’ll be back again soon… 

Paula Radcliffe says hello!

We were really proud to be part of this year’s Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance conference a few weeks ago too. 

Our Spread the Word stand was popular with everyone attending, including some famous faces!  

Thanks to Paula Radcliffe for stopping by, we really appreciate it. 

Our This Van Can roadshow was also shortlisted for the GM Cancer Awards -and we were absolutely thrilled to win!

If you haven’t seen it, the roadshow was something we worked on alongside the Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance, the NHS and Target Ovarian, hitting local streets to help spread the word about the symptoms and the importance of seeing your GP if you experience them.  

The roadshow toured thirty different locations across all boroughs of Greater Manchester over a six-week period, providing symptom information, videos, leaflets, posters, interactive activities, digital screens in local communities and much more.  

Thousands of people came to see the team on the van, with many more interacting and sharing on social media – posts for the campaign reached more than a million people.  There were 27 pieces of media coverage across radio, TV, print and online, and an additional 5,000 spread the word leaflets and 3,000 symptoms diaries provided to local people.  

Most importantly, 84 per cent of people who visited the van took part in a short survey and said that after taking part they were very likely to contact their GP should they notice any symptoms.  According to the results, knowledge about ovarian cancer went from 2.6 out of 10 before visiting the roadshow to 9.8 out of 10 afterwards.  

Receiving the special Collaboration Award this month from the GM Cancer Awards honouring the roadshow achievements was incredible.  It was such a pleasure to work with the other organisations and people locally to achieve what we did together with This Van Can and, for a charity of our size, partnering with others is at the heart of everything we do. 

Being BOLD!

And last, but certainly not least, a few weeks ago we held our very first BOLD event at On The 7th at Media City.

The sell-out event was an exclusive evening of conversation with some of the leading women in health, media and business. It was a huge success, and it felt very special to have so many inspiring women in the room, all sharing their own personal stories and experiences.. 

The stellar line-up of women included Naga Munchetty, BBC Breakfast presenter and author of It’s Probably Nothing, Rachel Burden, BBC Radio 5 Live’s breakfast host, journalist and mother of four, Dr Angela Wright, GP, acclaimed menopause specialist and sexologist of Spiced Pear Health fame and Sophie Attwood, business owner, brand PR guru and author of Beautiful PR. 

We were also joined by some of our very own supporters who have all been touched by ovarian cancer, They were the real stars of the night as they took to the catwalk to model some fabulous summer looks courtesy of John Lewis, withan extra touch of glam from the Charlotte Tilbury team and local hairdresser, Ian Graham.  

Presenter Kay Crewdson did an amazing job of hosting the whole event, creating fabulous and insightful conversations with our guests and making our models feel a million dollars. 

As well as raising much-needed awareness of ovarian cancer symptoms, it also raised more than £3,000.  

Thank you to everyone who helped make the evening possible, especially MediaCity, John Lewis Cheadle, John Lewis Trafford and everyone who donated raffle prizes. 

Thank you

Thank you so much to everyone who has not only supported all of this amazing activity, but also everyone who has been part of our journey over the last seven years too. 

We have lots more plans and know there’s still much to do and lots of hard work ahead.  But, every time we hear from people whose lives have been saved thanks to being symptom-aware, we know it’s absolutely worth it. 

Thank you again for everything you do to help us make a difference and save lives in Dianne’s name.