If there is one thing Bianca Munster hopes women understand when it comes to ovarian cancer, it’s to trust your body and seek answers if you know something is not quite right.
With ovarian cancer, the initial symptoms can be hard to detect, so there is nothing wrong in asking for a second or third medical option to find out exactly what the issue may be if you feel something is wrong.
Munster, wife of Storm star Cameron Munster, is an ambassador for Ovarian Cancer Australia and now knows all about the disease after losing her mother Maria to the deadliest cancer for women in the country.
“A pretty scary stat is five Australian women are diagnosed every day and three of those women die; it's a terrible statistic and people don't really survive the cancer enough to really share their story,” Munster said.
“It’s frightening, it’s a silent killer.
“Speaking on my mum’s case in particular, she went years undetected and looking back on it now, she clearly had symptoms for a very long time and all of those went undetected because she was never tested for ovarian cancer; that wasn't even a topic of conversation with doctors unfortunately.
“The symptoms, they are so vague, especially for women; bloating, fatigue, it's so normal, especially around that time of the month.
“My mum knew her body, she knew it well and she always complained to the point where we were almost like ‘mum, you are just bloated, it’s nothing’, which now, it's so awful that we thought that way because she knew her body better than anyone else.
“If you think there's something unnormal in your body, you need to get checked two, three, four times, get different opinions, even specifically asking for the ovarian cancer blood test or ultrasound.
“I think it’s a matter of following up and taking priority in your own body and how you feel and trusting your intuition on all that as well.
“You know yourself if your body isn't right or if you feel a certain way …there is no harm in going to someone new or getting a getting a test that you just feel you need.
“I think out of all of this, that is what I have learnt; if you have a gut feeling or if you think something's not right, you just keep getting things checked until you have a definitive answer.”
Despite the alarming statistics, not many people know about disease, and Munster was heartened to see the NRL partner with Ovarian Cancer Australia to help raise awareness.
“It's amazing having the platform of the NRL to broadcast such a hideous disease … I think it would be huge for not only women but for men as well just to have an understanding of how severe and tragic it can really be for women,” Munster said.
“Raising awareness is a big one, especially for males too. My husband, all of us, we had no idea when it all came about (with my mum).
“The survival rate of this cancer is the lowest, if not the lowest, especially in women's cancer, the stats are just tragic.
“I think the only way to change those things is to boost that awareness and boost the funding similar to what they've done with breast cancer with survival rates; they have improved a lot over time.
“That's the goal for ovarian cancer; to boost that awareness and the statistics and get it to that range where we can catch the disease early enough to prevent it or prolong life.”
This week for Women in League Round, the NRL is also helping to raise funds for Ovarian Cancer Australia with the assistance of Harvey Norman, with some of the money raised to go to providing support to women diagnosed with the disease and their families through their treatment, with specialist Teal Support Nurses.
Harvey Norman and the Rugby League Community will donate $1000 for every goal kicked at selected matches during the round to support the work of OCA.
“They're all specialist ovarian cancer nurses who help patients and families along the way,” Munster said.
“During mum’s diagnosis, it was smack bang during COVID and because it happened so quickly, everyone was learning along the way.
“Because her diagnosis was so advanced from the beginning, we basically knew that it was going to be a pretty quick treatment and journey for her, so we didn’t really (have the opportunity to) look much into support and what was out there and talk to people about it.
“Knowing now what Ovarian Cancer Australia do and how much they help and support women and families, it would have been an absolute game changer, especially through COVID, because that was such a hard time on its own.
“They do incredible work, it would have changed a lot mentally and emotionally for us to understand what it is, how we can help.
“In the long term, it could have potentially prolonged her life a little bit more, they do a lot of great work, so it would have incredible to utilise them if we had the chance to.”
Three years on from her mother’s passing, Munster continues to be inspired by her life and it was her experience that drove her to work as an ambassador to help draw more attention to the disease.
“We're three years on, it still affects us. That trauma, it’s never going to really go away, so that's where my passion come from,” Munster said.
“Just knowing what we went through and how awful it's been, and even now; it's been three years on and it feels like yesterday; it never gets easier.
“The whole point of it is to alleviate anyone else for having to go through that and show it’s not just a single woman in particular (living with the illness), it’s the entire family, it's everyone around them.
“My mum was my best friend and I hate the thought of anyone else having to go through what we have been through.
“I want to spread awareness and advocate as much as I can, that's all where it comes from and driving that is mum, because she doesn't have a voice to share her story, so I have been her voice to share that.”
To learn more about the initiative, Ovarian Cancer Australia, and other ambassador stories like that of Cath, who is living with ovarian cancer, visit the Ovarian Cancer Australia website.
