Thank you for visiting and considering to support MOCA. Just some information on why I want to support MOCA. When I was 35 years old I ran into a friend from my 20's. We had drifted apart, nothing major, just lives going in different directions. As I caught up with her I found out that she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and was fighting for her life. Her and her husband had a beautiful life, 2 young children, a beautiful home, they built a business together. Over the following 8 months after that meeting I would drop by food, read Scripture to her, call her, pray with and for her. I remembered why we were friends and my heart broke for her, her husband, her boys, her mother and siblings as we all had to say goodbye to her.
Over the next few years I met others who would talk of their loved ones who were battling ovarian cancer, Every time I would hear it I would be reminded of my friend and her battle and I would pray for them. About 7 years later I would learn more about when I was told by my mother that my cousin was battling ovarian cancer. I started to panic. I put my head in the sand and prayed. Later that year my husband was informed that his cousin was battling ovarian cancer. She was 18, just graduated high school, was going to start college in the fall. I was shocked. Up until this point ovarian cancer was something that I thought only people in their late 30's and older got. But no, this young, bright, beautiful, athletic 18 year old would say goodbye to all of us in the fall of the same year she was diagnosed.
Over the next couple of years I would watch my cousin in her battle, cheering her on when she would post something, which isn't often. But I would watch in amazement as the years have gone by and she is still with us, not really, truly knowing what that battle was like for her. In January of 2020 I got a little better idea of what that battle was going to look like when my sister called me up and told me that she had ovarian cancer, or what they thought might be ovarian cancer, I could no longer sit on the sidelines. I started to read up on ovarian cancer and found out that there are no way to test for it. I found out how important it is to be your own advocate. If something doesn't feel right, to insist on tests. It would take 6 months to confirm that she had ovarian cancer, partly because of covid and partly because the biopsies would sometimes point possible other cancers. So it wasn't until she could have the tumors removed that they could definitively say that it was ovarian cancer.
MOCA has been a great resource for us, even to the point that my sister was blessed with a family vacation. Now that some of the Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted I am wanting to do my part in helping support this great resource that is helping so many Minnesotan families, so thank you for considering to donate to this wonderful organization.