Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last month was Ovarian Cancer Month. Ovarian cancer is a very serious cancer. In fact, if you are diagnosed with it, you've got about a 45 per cent chance of living beyond five years. It's a very sad thing, indeed. I am wearing this magnificent teal pearl necklace today, made for me by Carolyn Bear. A number of years ago, Carolyn's daughter, Kylie, who was a psychologist studying for her PhD, died of ovarian cancer, at the age of 34. Since that time, Carolyn and her husband, Rob, have dedicated every spare minute to raising money for cancer research generally and ovarian cancer specifically. Carolyn has raised, along with Rob, over $200,000 from threading pearls, beads and crystals to make beautiful jewellery, and trinkets too.

So I say to Carolyn and Rob: thank you. I am so sorry that you weren't able to become a grandmother and a grandfather through your beautiful girl, Kylie; she was taken from you too early. But I stand with you as a parliamentary ambassador for ovarian cancer. I will wear this beautiful piece of jewellery that you made for me, and we will fight together to see that more funding is put into research so we can save more women from this terrible and insidious disease.