contract manager i've been there thirty four years i know half my life most of my life i'm very young and i have four grown children i have four grandchildren  that helps people improve their communication and leadership skills it helps you to listen better to analyze better to write and deliver speeches i think everybody's heard that people are more afraid of of spuds speaking than dying going to the dentist so they're more afraid of public speaking so toastmasters helps give people that confidence and i've been a member for that's hard to believe i actually bumped into a woman who said to me who was a survivor who is currently fighting over in cancer and she said to me i've never met a survivor i was the only person she had ever met who survived ovarian cancer and i think it's because the the ovarian cancer i have a small celled and it's very slow growing where many people have a very fast growing ovarian cancer that spreads very rapidly so i was diagnosed in one nine hundred ninety four had the initial surgery seemed to be doing well for i was in permanent remission and right before my tenth anniversary in two thousand  rediagnosed i was diagnosed with a recurrence that was devastating and that was tough because you think i've been doing everything right you've been going to the doctors i've been following all the instructions and here i are you kidding me so that was in two thousand syrian at that point i have a second surgery and i started chemotherapy and right after the chemotherapy my daughter my youngest daughter started looking show she found an organization not the national ovarian cancer coalition and she started going to their walks and eventually we started organizing teel teas we would have an annual where we would raise money to support knock yeah this what was was with my family and friends and i had two years of doing that we said whoa why aren't we have foundation because we want to support awareness we want to support research we want to reach out to streets and i keep watching and losing sisters from this disease and the very difficult because i continue to live and i'm watching these women struggle and survive and go through round after round after round of chemotherapy and experimental drugs trying to to hold onto life and that's the very heart so we hope that through this organization we give people hope we help with early awareness  people to know about ovarian cancer and know what the symptoms are right and that we support research work for a cure for early detection yeah that's terrific that really  what well i answered the question what inspired you to organize that you know and there well but what programs do you have that we have a program many women who need treatments who can't afford the fare bus fare where the train fare or who don't have family to bring them to treatments which is right totally beyond anything i could even dream  i can't imagine that you wouldn't have that support system right to get to your treatments and i said do you think you can organize a program that would help these women we organize give women a lift yeah it was you name it we do it we're working on a fundraiser now with carvel ice cream in atlanta and wall that will be late august we'll have something with them about one day i go buy ice cream and we get a percent night and it was so popular last ship people who wanted to go couldn't go we have one of seats here so we opened a second one on march nineteenth and i will be a saint patrick's day oh i was ten and it's at the talking tea cup and  right and he said you're talking about ovarian cancer to these men and i said but i'm addressing them and saying you have to be active and proactive for your wa it was for your  your partners for your loved ones in your life it's not just their problem ovarian cancer any kind of cancer impacts your whole family and facts so if somebody has cancer everybody is impacted by it right yeah and the earlier you find it the better chance of survival right yeah i'm so important to go to the doctor and you know to get mammograms and things like that and of varying cancer you know  i'll tell you to the important thing to know about ovarian cancer is that people the symptoms are disguised as a flu or cold so you would think oh my gosh i'm just support we are supported by koreans we apply for grants quite frequently where support about all our fund raising afterwards personal donations personal contributions we've had several sisters pass who are members of the organization who in lieu of flowers and donations made to are going to get national we didn't a we had a wonderful fundraiser organized by the chip and school ok and i think ended up giving us over to the thousand dollars for their annual charity walk that they did and i think it was last year and that believe it or not was organized by two young girls from my youth leadership program and toastmasters ok eighth graders who presided at i was so proud of them they presented it to their student council to their teachers when they chose our idea fundraiser we need people to help us expand our audience beyond the mercer county by county area right yeah i think we have a lot of money are we need people who are proficient share with us about your journey it's been long nah i don't think many people can say they've been fighting ovarian cancer for over twenty years it's been long it's been interest burst with many other cancers yeah i just i guess i'm just genetically susceptible to multiple cancers so when i faced breast cancer and lung cancer and brain cancer and to mean the most important thing is to keep going right yeah not have it interfere with your life you know the most important thing is to wake up every day and thank god you're getting to r you know and everything that you're doing and helping people thank you what we'd like to tell someone that is travelling this journey i think the most important thing is to surround yourself with love sober get rid of all the negative people in your life where the people go oh you poor thing in one altering and struck you know get rid of them you stand on your own two feet and you fight fight and you surround yourself with people who are positive who give you positive energy trying to make you laugh right yes you know who will take you out for a good time are a comedy show or you know you try to make you laugh surround yourself with support and love and that's how you'll get through it you write i was reading a book and i can't remember the name of the book but there was one thing in it and they talked about you know going for treatments and there were some bare radiation and i never forgot that and they said that when you're getting a r one day one when i went home i went to my pocket and pocket book and called him up by my rosary me yet and i was beside myself a court the hospital they couldn't find it nobody could find his rosary beads and i thought why i must have dropped them in the parking lot and they're gone i must them and they were very important to me because my husband had been to italy in the military he was in the army for time and he brought these home to me and i was devastated i was up plus it was just a symbol of you know i hung them every day with rain the girls in the radiation room bought me a little m time for my tax treatment to come come to our website w w w t o t dot org ok send me an e mail director at t dot org you can call me t volunteers our officers and our volunteers and my friends and my family for sticking with me for all this time that's just amazing to me you know we some of the same people in there for ten years yeah and it's really something you know it's a passion and it's something that i know that when i give something i feel so much better and like i said i had a friend  and have a great way and thank you for joining