Local children raise money for ovarian cancer survivor

ZANESVILLE - Cameron Morrison doesn't say much. Nor does his older sister Brianna. The siblings sat at their high-top kitchen table, weaving together piles of teal rubber bands they pulled from a Ziploc bag without saying a word.

Their mother, Kelly Morrison, said the kids are usually much more talkative.

The kids hooked plastic clasps on the ends of the fishtail braids of rubber bands, turning them into stretchy teal bracelets. Cameron, a Maysville fourth-grader, and Brianna, an eighth-grader, made close to 200 of them throughout August to raise money for a woman they hardly knew, who was in the midst of a battle with ovarian cancer.

Nancy Warthman, of Zanesville, was diagnosed with granulosa cell ovarian cancer this spring. She was diagnosed as stage IIIB, which means the cancer had spread from her ovaries into her abdomen, but not yet to the lymph nodes. Warthman's type of cancer is very rare and difficult to detect. Many of the symptoms are fairly routine like abdominal pain, bloating or nausea.

Warthman thought she might have developed a cyst in her lower abdomen, so she went to the doctor. She had surgery in late April this year where doctors found five cancerous tumors. They removed one of her ovaries.

"It was of course a shock because we were looking at one thing and found something else," Warthman said.

Warthman began chemotherapy in July. She would go five days a week for one week, then just Mondays the following two weeks, then repeat the cycle. She did so until the start of October.

Throughout the process, medical bills began to pile up. Warthman couldn't work while undergoing treatment and eventually lost her job as a nurse she had held for six years, making the financial strain even more difficult. She has two children, Morgan and Jared Reed.

The treatment left Warthman weak, forcing she and her family to rely on others for help.

"When you're going through it, you don't know what you need," she said. "You're here, but you're not here. My husband was just carrying around a body."

Friends and family members began raising money through things like candle sales and GoFundMe pages. Members of her church brought food to the home.

Warthman's son Jared, an eighth-grader at Maysville, plays on the same soccer team as Cameron and Brianna's older brother Andrew, which is how they came to learn of Warthman's story. Cameron began asking his questions about how they could help. Brianna showed him how to make the rubber-band bracelets and the two started churning them out.

Their father, Dan Morrison, posted a photo on Facebook, offering up the bracelets for $1 apiece to help Warthman. Soon, requests for the little teal bracelets piled up, so Cameron and Brianna continued braiding. Teal is the color for ovarian cancer awareness.

At a benefit for Warthman on Sept. 5, the children handed the more than $200 they raised over to Warthman.

"To actually have somebody that young to care about somebody else and coming up with something to do to help (is amazing)," Warthman said.

Warthman's final chemotherapy session was Oct. 5. After a CAT scan on Oct. 12, she was officially declared cancer-free.

Now, Warthman continues to work on building strength. She is able to clean, cook and do laundry, but is not yet back to work. She said she gets frustrated at how quickly she loses energy, but she is learning to pace herself. Warthman hopes to be working again by the start of 2016.

According to the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition, there are currently no early detection tests for ovarian cancer. Warthman has taken on a new mission as an ovarian cancer survivor to push for more active research into the disease.

She said October, which is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, was a particularly difficult month for her because it tends to overshadow other forms of cancer, including ovarian cancer.

"It's very hard (to understand) unless you go through it," Warthman said. "And if you're going through it, it's harder."

Warthman said that lack of attention to ovarian cancer could feel isolating. The American Cancer Society estimates more than 21,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year, compared to more than 10 times that for breast cancer.

But receiving the support of people like the Morrison family encouraged her to ramp up her advocacy for ovarian cancer awareness and research.

"It was just amazing to see the whole community come together to help her family," Kelly Morrison said.

bparks2@gannett.com

740-450-6758

Twitter: @Bradley_W_Parks