Raising ovarian cancer awareness

Nanci Cacossa, an Oceanside resident, has spent the last two years of her life battling ovarian cancer. She’s made it through her fight with her circle of strength — her husband, Frank, and her children Evan and Brittany.

Cacossa wants to share the strength the received from her family with others. So she founded The Circle of Strength, a group dedicated to raising awareness and finding a cure for ovarian cancer.

“…Women really don’t know enough about ovarian cancer — they don’t know the symptoms, they don’t know the right questions to ask their doctors,” Cacossa said. “When a symptom presents itself, so many times it’s like a bloated stomach or back pain, so they go to their regular [doctor] and their doctor says, ‘Oh, you have gas,’ or, ‘Oh, you have a strained muscle.’ And it gets to the point where it goes on for such a long time that by the time they are diagnosed, it’s in the later stages. And it’s always better to have early detection in any type of cancer.”

To help raise awareness, The Circle of Strength will be holding Teal Thursday on May 26. Cacossa is encouraging everyone to wear teal on that day to help raise awareness of ovarian cancer. And it can be anything, she said — a shirt, a hat, a scarf, a bracelet. Anything goes, so long as it’s teal.

A week later, Circle of Strength is hosting a fundraiser walk at Baldwin Park on June 5. The walk — a brief walk around the park of slightly over a mile — starts at 11 a.m. It will be followed by a family fair with rides and games for kids and raffles for adults, including an iPad and a helicopter ride around Manhattan. All of the money raised will go to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.

For more information on the June 5 walk and the Circle of Strength, visit www.thecircleofstrengthinc.com.