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‘Healing’ quilt at UT Medical Center binds ovarian cancer survivors |
| By
Jim Winkler |
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Dec 11, 2006 |
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Ovarian cancer is often dubbed the “silent killer.”
With no obvious symptoms and no routine screening test, the lethal disease often strikes without warning.
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| Flanking a quilt pieced together by the ovarian cancer support group are, left to right, Ellen Jackson, Karen Casey, Stella Schwan, Linda Ralston, Pam Meyers and Marti Salwicz. |
“It is a deadly disease, but our chances for survival are much better today because of newer treatment options,” said Toledoan Ellen Jackson, 65, a survivor of the disease who regularly attends meetings of the 25-member “Let’s Talk It Ovar” ovarian cancer support group that meets the first Tuesday of every month in Perrysburg. They come together to increase awareness about the deadly cancer and to give women and families the information they need to overcome the illness.
Jackson and five other members of the support group gathered in late October at University Cancer Center on the Health Science Campus, where they are being treated, to view a 4-foot-by-5-foot quilt that hangs in the patient waiting area. The quilt, assembled by support group members, was presented earlier this year to Dr. Stephen Andrews, a gynecological oncologist and associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the UT College of Medicine.
“The quilt is a wonderful piece of art, and shows the connection among patients, their caregivers and views of their illness,” said Jan Tipton, an oncology clinical nurse specialist who works in the cancer center. “The work on the quilt was important for healing, and provides other survivors as well as caregivers with encouragement and hope.”
Each handcrafted 12-inch-by-12-inch square carries its own inspiration and tells a story about the person and her life, according to Jackson, who was diagnosed in 2002 and who recently had her 46th chemotherapy treatment.
For Jackson, the quilt evokes memories of close friends who she “knew and loved and now miss” and whose brave battles against the disease have inspired her. She said it is a fitting tribute to the lives of the women who lost their lives to ovarian cancer.
It provides encouragement, too.
“There are new therapies and treatments today that weren’t available to some of the people whose names are on the quilt,” Jackson said.
Today, as other women pass through the center’s entrance, often for chemotherapy, they can stop and read the names and know something of those who also have fought, people like area residents Beth Hagarty, Karen Creque and Sandy Snead, who contributed so much before they died.
Creque’s square includes patches in the shape of a golf green and traps. “Like golf, living with ovarian cancer calls for hope, ” she wrote.
Before she died in July 2004, Snead, who had been diagnosed five years earlier, wrote: “Although very devastating, it has also blessed me with a faith I might never have known otherwise. While on my journey, I am learning daily how to live a purpose-driven life. It is because of God’s grace that I have faith, hope and love. I dedicate my square to him and many others, especially my family. It is because of their determination and prayers that I am able to keep going. I have a favorite verse that I hope to always live by. It is Philippians 4:13, which reads, ‘For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need.’ ”
Snead’s square has the words “faith,” “love” and “hope.”
The hands on the quilt are outlines of those of former and current University Cancer Center physicians and nurses.
Karen Binder, a Toledo native who was diagnosed in 1991 at the age of 29, and her friend, Sharon Goodell, started the support group.
Binder and her husband, Ron, moved to North Carolina, but her cancer returned in 1995. She formed an ovarian cancer support group and started making quilts. They returned to Toledo in 2000 to be closer to their families, and later she published a book, The Healing Quilt: An Ovarian Cancer Survivor's Story, which not only told her story, but tells inspiring stories of others who dealt with adverse situations. She died two years ago.
The support group also has presented quilts to gynecological oncology physicians and nurses at Toledo Hospital and is working on a quilt for St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center. Jackson is working on her square that will have the names of her five children and 11 grandchildren.
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