BOSTON, MA – Draping the elegant Boston Park Plaza Hotel in glimmering teal, Susan Patterson and her team at Ovations For The Cure held a near storybook evening raising funds and awareness to prevent ovarian cancer.
“It’s a small organization, but it has enormous impact,” says Joyce Kulhawik, a well-known voice across New England airwaves who served as the accidental inspiration for the non-profit. “Joyce met Patty (Franchi-Flaherty) all those years ago. Patty came home that day and made a few phone calls to friends and the next thing you know there’s an organization being born,” explains Patterson.
What was once a small grassroots organization has grown into a powerhouse non-profit that has raised a total of just over a million dollars that funds innovative research at Dana-Farber through Dr. Ursula Matulonis, MD. “We’re really developing novel treatments that hit at specific, kind of Achilles’ heels kind of cancers.”
Outside of research, the Ovations team is dedicated to supporting patients actively in treatment. “They feel alone. The current economy, people are struggling to make ends meet and the doctors are telling them to eat healthy, to do this or that, and they can’t,” explains Patterson. “It’s a big emotional drain on their families, often, not to mention a financial drain. Ovations for the cure is there to fill in a lot of the gaps and just be a big foundation of moral and emotional support,” says Kulhawik.
If there’s one message this team has, it’s rooted in awareness for early detection and, according to Dr. Matulonis, really understanding your family history. “It’s very important I would say to listen to yourself. Because we live in our bodies, we know them better than anyone else. And the key is to really find a doctor that will hear you and see you very clearly.”
To learn more about Ovations for the Cure, visit their website.
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Emmalyn Reid 