Sad news, and wonderful generous women

  

I mentioned in my last post that I'd been busy doing some urgent sewing, and as my regular readers know, I've been part of the Footsquare Freestyle Block Swap, which consists of 12 of us worldwide and where every month we each make 3 blocks, a foot square, in the recipient's chosen colour.  We were all busily working on beautiful green blocks for Emmely,  when we received the sad news that one of our group who had been receiving treatment for ovarian cancer, was now in palliative care, and might not see out the remainder of the months until her turn in May.

We all agreed immediately to put Emmely's blocks to one side for now...thankyou Emmely for being willing to wait..., and make Pat's as quickly as we could and send them to Sue, one of the organisers of the swap, in the US, who will put the quilt together for us.  Her son, who has along-arm quilting machine has kindly offered to quilt it for us.......thank you Sue and Son.  when it's finished, it'll be sent on to Pat...in time, we all hope and pray, for her to see and hold it and enjoy it for however long she has.  Thanks too, to the wonderful F2F women, who gave generously of their time, money and energy, and put everything else on hold for a couple of days in order to make Pat's quilt a reality.  We made it work...together. 

Pat chosen colours are  teal cream and tan, teal being the colour of the Ovarian Cancer Ribbon.

You'll be pleased to know that 30 blocks were made and are on their way to Sue in 5 days....Sue made her own 3 plus Pat's 3.  And so that Pat can get an idea of how her quilt might look,  Kate, another of our organisers, very cleverly made a ' vitual quilt', using  the photos we sent her. Thanks Kate

And here it is......

 Pat's Virtual Quilt

The blocks have pulled together beautifuly, and include 3  hearts and a teal ribbon. At the appropriate time, the quilt will be donated to the Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project in Houston, Texas, to be auctioned for the Centre.  there's also a Facebook page, so go on over and have a look if you're interested or would like to know more.

On behalf of Pat, each of us F2Fers is passing on the message to raise awareness about ovarian cancer. Apparently the symptoms are ones that women might have from time to time, symptoms of less serious and more common health problems, and so dismiss them as 'nothing to worry about'.

This excerpt is from the Australian Ovarian Cancer Australian website.....https://ovariancancer.net.au/ but you can google 'ovarian cancer' to get more information in your own country.

Every woman needs to know the symptoms of ovarian cancer. Make sure you do.

But we do know that ovarian cancer is NOT a silent disease. Women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer report four types of symptoms most frequently:

Abdominal or pelvic pain.

Increased abdominal size or persistent abdominal bloating.

Needing to urinate often or urgently.

Feeling full after eating a small amount.

If you have any of these symptoms, they are new for you and you have experienced them multiple times during a 4-week period, go to your GP. To help track these symptoms, download our Symptom diary now. Ovarian Cancer Australia’s Symptom Diary helps you to monitor your symptoms. You can then take the completed diary to your doctor to assist with diagnosis.

Be aware — but don’t make yourself sick with worry

It is important to remember that most women with these symptoms will not have ovarian cancer. Your doctor should first rule out more common causes of these symptoms, but if there is no clear reason for your symptoms, your doctor needs to consider the possibility of ovarian cancer. If you are not comfortable with your doctor’s diagnosis or you are still concerned about unexplained persistent symptoms, you should seek a second opinion.

You know your body better than anyone else, so always listen to what your body is saying and trust your instincts.

In February, Ovarian Cancer Australia is running a national Ovarian Cancer Awareness campaign to highlight the symptoms, help raise awareness to save lives and provide support to all those touched by ovarian cancer.  Wednesday 24th is Teal Ribbon Day, so let's all wear a teal ribbon for Pat and women everywhere.

 

Update - we have heard from Sue to say the first blocks have arrived from Europe, which 

means more squishy parcels will be arriving soon, and Sue will be able to start the labour of love of putting the quilt together,  We're with you in spirit, Sue.

***