Sandy Sprint raises money for early diagnosis of primary peritoneal cancer

LONGPORT – The symptoms of ovarian cancer can be subtle, and often they are not frequently talked about. But one mother wants to stop the whispering and begin to roar for a cure.

It is time for the Sandy Rollman Sandy Sprint 5K walk and run on Saturday, April 24 in Fairmont Park in Philadelphia, and the Maryalyce’s Light team will walk in honor of Maryalyce Martin Dolan, who lost her battle with primary peritoneal cancer, a cancer related to ovarian cancer.

She tested positive for a mutation in the BRAC 1cancer gene. She enrolled in a risk assessment screening program at a center city University hospital and did everything she was told to do. She had a prophylactic hysterectomy to avoid ovarian cancer, saying she was doing it so that she might see her children graduate college.

“Being at their graduations from fourth and seventh grades in June 2009 broke my heart,” said her mother, Alice Martin of Longport. “She was already gone two years.”

Martin said things did not go well for Dolan her after the surgery. A year later on her 40th birthday, she was taken to the emergency room at Abington Hospital, and within hours she was diagnosed with stage 3 primary peritoneal cancer. After emergency surgery her doctors gave her a window of two to five years to live.

Maryalyce had a tough fight and was gone in 13 months, her mother said.

According to Martin, there is no tried and true test for this cancer. Symptoms can be vague and are often overlooked or thought to be from stress.

It is only when the cancer reaches stage 3 or 4 that doctors are able to diagnose it, and by then it is usually too late – “like it was too late to help my daughter,” Martin said.

The money raised from the walk is given to area hospitals for research to help find a diagnostic tool so that doctors will be able to save more women’s lives, she said.

“Maryalyce wanted all women to know a hysterectomy is not the answer. In order to detect all cancer cells that might exist in the body, peritoneal washings and serial biopsies of the organs need to become standards of care for women who undergo prophylactic hysterectomies for vague but debilitating symptoms,” said Martin, who would be pleased if her daughter’s legacy would be to educate women about the deadly disease.

“I know economic times are hard, but I hope people will help by registering to join our team or sponsor us as we walk once again in hope for a cure. We are hoping to honor Maryalyce and have her legacy live on through a cure for ovarian cancer,” she said.

“Please help, so no child has to lose their mother or parents lose their child or siblings.”

To register for the Sandy Rollman Sandy Sprint 5K or donate to Maryalyce’s Light team see www.sandyovarian.org and register to walk, run or donate to the team.