September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and Hillsborough is doing its part to raise awareness for this deadly disease.
According to the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition, an estimated 1 in 78 women will develop the disease in her lifetime. When the disease is diagnosed in its earliest stages, the 5-year survival rate is over 90%; however, due to ovarian cancer’s non-specific symptoms and lack of early detection tests, about only 20% of all cases are found early, the survival rate can be as low as 28%. Knowing the signs and symptoms is crucial to early detection and increasing the odds for a positive outcome.
Turn The Towns Teal is a national campaign to promote awareness of ovarian cancer, its subtle symptoms and risk factors. During National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, attention is called to this disease by tying ribbons in various locations like town centers, businesses, places of worship and in neighborhoods.
Susyn Timko, a local musician who lost her mother to ovarian cancer, has served as the coordinator for the Turn The Towns Teal program in Hillsborough for the past decade. On Sept. 1, Timko, along with a group of township employees and volunteers, gathered outside Hillsborough Township’s Peter J. Biondi Municipal Building to “Turn the Town Teal,” commemorating National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, according to information provided by the township.
This is Timko’s seventh year leading the effort at the municipal complex.
“Thank you to Susyn and her team for continuing to bring awareness to the signs and symptoms of Ovarian Cancer,” Mayor Doug Tomson said in the statement.
Each year, during September, the Hillsborough Township Committee presents a proclamation to help spread awareness of the disease and its symptoms.
For more information, visit www.turnthetownsteal.org/
