By Janine Vanderburg

I’ve had a lot of interesting experiences in my career, and a particular memorable one was my involvement in 1990 in helping to plan community-based family resource centers.  We were trying to bring together groups that had never worked together before in pursuit of a common goal: Seamless integration of services for families. (Okay—the dream will never die!)

At one community-planning meeting for the statewide Family Resource Center project, I met Lucy Trujillo. At the time, Lucy was an employee of Denver Public Schools striving to bring resources to some of Denver’s poorest school children. She and I both had strong (and sometimes conflicting) opinions about how that could best happen, and what I learned was this: Rigorous discussions can lead not only to good decisions, but also to really good friendships.

In the 19 years since, Lucy and I have remained friends (and neighbors!) and have worked together on many projects designed to improve the health, education and welfare of Colorado’s diverse populations.  In 2007, Lucy told me she had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.  I remember her saying, “Oh my God, what do people without health insurance do when they receive a cancer diagnosis?” It was in this same conversation I saw a new mission and focus begin to develop in Lucy.

Soon after this conversation, while she was still in chemotherapy, Lucy began volunteering for the Colorado Ovarian Cancer Alliance (COCA), a nonprofit organization promoting awareness of ovarian cancer through education, advocacy and support. Ovarian cancer is often deadly because there is no screening test and the signs and symptoms often lead to misdiagnosis, meaning 70 percent of women are diagnosed in the late stages of cancer.

In January 2009, Lucy became the Executive Director of the COCA, and just a couple of days ago I saw Lucy on television in a Public Service Announcement promoting the Breast and Women’s Reproductive Cancers Fund (BWRC Fund).  This is a voluntary check-off donation on line 44 of the Colorado Income Tax Form.

Lucy had a cancer reoccurrence in January 2009 and is back in chemotherapy, but she continues to educate and advocate for Colorado’s cancer survivors. The Public Service Announcement is only one of the actions she has taken. Please take a moment to take action and support my friend’s effort to help raise money to support women in need of services to fight and survive their cancer.

Lucy is also working on an educational conference on women’s gynecological cancers to be held in May 2009.  For more information, contact Lucy at Lucy@colo-ovariancancer.org. Let’s all learn about the risk factors, signs and symptoms of women’s reproductive cancers.