My mom, Darlene Stensby, was diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer in June of 2017, and died in October of that year. I will never forget the day in August of 2017 when my mom beckoned "her girls" (my sister Heidi, my sister-in-law Sooze, my daughter Maddie, and me) to her hospital bedside. She was all fired up, and almost glowing from the inside out. She had seen a clip on CBS News that afternoon, and Kim Johnson had been sharing information about the 18th Teal Strides event that would be happening the following month. Mom decided then and there that we were going to put together a team, and we would raise money for MOCA (MN Ovarian Cancer Alliance) and participate in the event. My mom's energy and enthusiasm were completely contagious, and I felt the relief of having something really hands on and active that I could do to help fight this dreadful disease. We created Mom's team Darlene's Warrior Queens, bought crowns for all of our team members, and in just over a month, our team raised more than $5,000 for MOCA. It was amazing. In the days leading up to the Teal Strides event in 2017, mom's health was on a crazy roller coaster. We received great news from her CA-125 blood test that showed that her chemo infusions were killing the cancer cells. Sadly, we also found out that week that the chemo was eating away at the artificial joints that were in mom's body, and the infection caused by that was causing her incredible pain, and was in fact, killing her. Although Mom had planned to be at Teal Strides 2017, she realized the week before the walk that she would not be able to attend. And the day before the event, Mom chose to stop the treatments that were destroying her artificial joints, which we all knew meant that hospice options needed to be explored.  Mom died less than a month after Teal Strides that year. Our family vowed to honor her memory in every way we could, and agreed that one very active thing we could do would be to participate in Teal Strides every year from that point on. It is our goal to raise as much money as we can for MOCA in the hope that fewer women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year, and that early detection efforts will be greatly increased. Please do what you can to support the promise we made in 2017. Become one of Darlene's Warrior Queens. If you are physically not able to participate in the event, consider becoming a virtual team member. And by all means, break out your wallet and make a donation - every dollar counts, and every penny helps.