John Hawkins
Southland mum Margaret Dynes has added her voice to a report calling on government to do more to help women with ovarian cancer. [File photo]
After two years of dealing with pain and fatigue Susan McEwan’s GP sent her to see a psychiatrist, but by the time she was diagnosed another two years later, she had stage three ovarian cancer.
Her mother, Southlander Margaret Dyne,s said it took four years seeing 10 GPs in two different cities before someone took her seriously.
McEwan’s story is not unique, which is why Dynes has added her voice to a 145-page National Ovarian Cancer report Cure our Ovarian Cancer founder Jane Ludemann presented to the Health Select Committee on Wednesday afternoon.
The organisation is calling on the government to incorporate ovarian cancer symptoms education into the cervical cancer screening programme, to develop national guidelines for primary care doctors and nurses and, to resource the necessary ultrasounds required to make a diagnosis.
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Because as Ludemann experienced herself, half of all ovarian cancer diagnosis are delivered in the emergency department.
Her research shows 80% of the roughly 360 women diagnosed each year report feeling like a hypochondriac at some point in their diagnosis journey.
Ludemann was invited to present the report after delivering a petition calling for Government support in March 2021.
Dynes has been working to raise awareness about poor treatment of gynaecological cancers since nursing her dying daughter in 2014.
SUPPLIED
Cure Our Ovarian Cancer founder Jane Ludemann is living with ovarian cancer. Despite two years of symptoms, she says it was only when the cancer caused emergency complications that anyone took her seriously.
A complaint to the Health and Disability Commission about the Auckland practice that missed McEwan’s cancer was not upheld on the basis that the diagnosis of ovarian cancer was difficult because of its vague symptoms, so Dynes petitioned Government to set up a body to monitor GPs in 2017.
The Health Select Committee responded that the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Amendment Bill would strengthen oversight and General Practice Foundation Standards would General Practice Foundation Standards would improve GP performance.
But four years after the committee’s response, Dynes said: “It still makes me cry that it happens to women all the time. That’s why I’m backing Jane to the hilt.”
“If they don’t listen now, what have we got left?”
Dynes has been plastering Cure our Ovarian Cancer awareness posters all over Southland and Clutha to make sure women know the signs, but said women had to demand tests.
Supplied
Southland woman Susan McEwan, pictured with her cat Zac, visited numerous doctors over four years before she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Her daughter, who grew up in Invercargill, was 44 when she died and Dynes remembers McEwan as kind and trusting.
“All she wanted to do was make people happy. She wanted to do good in this world.”
She’s angry that McEwan could have lived had she been diagnosed early.
Dynes is one of 69 Kiwis who’ve shared their stories in the report going before the Health Select Committee today.
The committee is expected to discuss the report before deciding the next steps.
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