After battling her way through ovarian cancer, Nancy Wainwright has a message for women over 50: monitor your body for change, no matter how subtle.At 55, she started suffering from abdominal pain, acid reflux, bloating and low energy. Doctors ran a battery of tests over an eight-month period.Most notable were the results from a cancer antigen test that showed a raised level of the protein CA-125 in her blood and a CT scan that revealed two trouble spots in her colon.Her family physician misdiagnosed diverticulitis, an inflammation of pouches called diverticula that can form in the intestine.Surgery was required; however, a planned two-hour operation at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital on September 3, 2018 lasted for five instead.Ms Wainwright woke up hooked to monitors in the Intensive Care Unit where a surgeon patted her on the shoulder and informed her that she had Stage 3 ovarian cancer, and it had spread. Part of her colon was removed during the operation and she also had a full hysterectomy. Doctors told her further surgery was required, but it had to be done by specialists overseas.“You have that moment where you face the facts and everything sinks in,” said Ms Wainwright, an underwriter with Sompo International.“I never cried. I was sitting in the hospital processing. I thought, ‘Oh my God. I am going to die.’”She felt reassured after a phone call from the surgeon at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who told her that he did many operations like it every day. A month later, she travelled to Boston, Massachusetts, where she had her spleen, half her stomach and part of her colon removed.Ten days later, she was released from the hospital only to return a few hours later, complaining of severe pain. An abscess under her left lung was the problem. “It was the most horrible part of this whole ordeal,” Ms Wainwright said. “I had to have a drain.“It was very upsetting and frightening after what I had been through.”She spent an additional four weeks recovering in the hospital. She is grateful for the support she got from her husband, Jonathan, and daughter, Samantha.“You have no control of anything,” she said. “I was lying in bed. I felt like a vessel with things being pumped into me and blood work every day at 5am.”She left Dana-Farber 60lbs lighter. Very weak, she had to wait a fortnight before she could begin the four months of chemotherapy her doctors had prescribed in Bermuda.“I had my girlfriend shave my hair off before I started,” she said. “I knew I would lose it.”Always active, she struggled with exercise after the treatments finished in May 2019. Even on a ten-minute walk, she would have to stop and catch her breath “if there was a little hill”.With each step her health improved until January when her CA-125 levels rose again and she needed a second round of chemotherapy, this time with a different drug. “That was very disappointing,” Ms Wainwright said. “I did not expect that at all considering the extensive surgery and aggressive chemotherapy I had been through.”She has since moved on to an immunotherapy programme that is expected to last for about a year.“That keeps everything at bay. It is an infusion I receive every three weeks and takes about a half-hour.“Basically, it deprives the naughty cells of oxygen. It gives me peace of mind.”Able to exercise again, she slowly built up her stamina, walking and cycling farther and farther from her Warwick home, and on Saturday will take part in a virtual 5K and 2K run and walk organised by the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Club. As further proof of her recovery, she has put on 35lbs and her hair has come in. She is also back to work full time.“They said I responded really well to treatment and my blood looks excellent,” she said. “My CA-125 levels look great. I also feel great, so I want to get on with things.“It has absolutely changed my perspective.“Now, it is a joy to be out doing the things I love — cycling, jumping into the water off our boat or spending time with friends and family.”She is not expecting her 5K walk on Saturday to be a breeze, as she hasn’t been out practising since July, when it became too hot. “But I am looking forward to it,” Ms Wainwright said. “That is why I picked a flat route.”She shared her story in hopes of raising women’s awareness.“I would love to be a support to anyone who is going through something like this.“I know how scary it is. Question everything.“Any female in her fifties should ask for the CA-125 marker to be included in her blood work.”Help the fight against ovarian cancerHaving battled ovarian cancer herself, Nancy Wainwright is this week fundraising for charity.The goal of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Bermuda is to make women aware of the disease and encourage early detection. Between tomorrow and Sunday, Ms Wainwright will walk 5K with Martha Gould as part of a virtual fundraiser organised by the Mid Atlantic Athletic Club. “When I saw it was for ovarian cancer, I thought ‘I am definitely doing that’,” said Ms Wainwright, who has raised $3,850 for the cause so far.Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths among women. A woman’s chances for surviving it for five years or more jumps from 46 per cent to more than 90 per cent when detected in the earliest stages.Symptoms include pain during sex, abdominal pain, bloating, frequent diarrhoea or constipation, feeling full quickly while eating and unexplained weight loss.• Help Nancy Wainwright raise funds for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Bermuda here: bit.ly/2Rypg1u. For ovarian cancer support, reach her at nancy.wainwright@me.com or 704-2921