By Janine Vanderburg
JVA Consulting President

Coming of age in the late 1960s and early ’70s, the feminist concept of the “personal is political” resonated deeply with me. Awakened to and outraged by the constant affronts to women (I’ll never forget the Dean of our law school welcoming the incoming class and stating he was very happy the women in the class were good looking unlike the women lawyers he had had to work with in the Soviet Union that summer), I started women’s centers, organized for the Equal Rights Amendment in rural Virginia and became the president of the “Mary and William Society.”

And I bring this up now for this reason: The Colorado Ovarian Cancer Alliance (COCA) is organizing an awareness march this Friday at lunchtime. Click here for the details.

And even though it is the Friday before Labor Day, we need to attend.

The personal is this. COCA’s Executive Director, Lucy Trujillo, is my longtime friend, and she has ovarian cancer. Click here for  my previous blog post on this. And in June, all of us at JVA learned that our friend and colleague, Lorna Naegele, JVA’s Senior Associate in Grand Junction, had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Our entire team has stepped in to help, and our/Lorna’s clients have been amazing in their support and understanding. And yet it is devastating to see people that you care about so much struggle with this insidious disease.

The political is this. This is a disease affecting women. There is not routine screening. And by the time most women are diagnosed, it is late stage. We need to change this.

And sometimes what makes a difference is people showing up. Barbara O’Brien will be there. Diana DeGette will be there. I hope you can be.