Strengthening its unwavering pledge to both a personal and important cause, CAMILLA AND MARC today announced its philanthropic campaign – “Ovaries. Talk About Them”, designed to raise the much-needed funding to further develop an early detection test for Ovarian Cancer. 100% of proceeds will go directly to Associate Professor Caroline Ford and her team at the Ovarian Cancer Research Group, UNSW Medicine to raise the vital funds for the fight against this devastating disease.
There is no test. There are no warning signs. There is no cure. In Australia three women die from ovarian cancer every day, and close to 300,000 women are diagnosed every year worldwide. With minimal warning signs and currently no early detection test, once ovarian cancer is diagnosed, it is often too late. It is the deadliest female cancer.
CAMILLA AND MARC Creative Director Camilla Freeman-Topper and CEO Marc Freeman lost their mother to ovarian cancer 27 years ago when they were 11 and 13 respectively. Motivated by their devastating loss and personal connection to the disease, in 2020 Camilla and Marc launched “Ovaries.Talk About Them” to provide awareness and to directly fund research into an early detection test led by Associate Professor Caroline Ford.
“There is still no early diagnosis test for Ovarian Cancer almost 30 years after my mother’s death, largely due to a lack of awareness and funding which is just so hard to believe. Ovarian Cancer is the deadliest female cancer and is in dire need of attention. Over 300,000 women worldwide die annually from the disease, often because of a late diagnosis and that’s simply not good enough. It’s so difficult because we all want to be preventative and get checked but there’s currently no way to do this.
We are proud of what we have achieved to date, but there is much work to be done. In honour of our mother and all of those affected by this disease for 2021 we will launch a bold unisex campaign to get both women and men talking. If we can detect this disease early, it will be a game changer for women’s health”, says Freeman-Topper.
To date CAMILLA AND MARC has raised a remarkable $225K, kickstarting the further development of an early detection test and enabling the UNSW Ovarian Cancer Research Group to employ two key female scientists to focus solely on this work.
Associate Professor Carline Ford says “The injection of funds from the first successful year of the ‘Ovaries. Talk About Them” campaign has allowed us to create a dedicated expert team of scientists focused on the development of an early detection test for ovarian cancer.
The funds from the campaign have significantly progressed the development of our early detection test. This funding has meant an increased focus and our outlook is extremely positive. In the last year the team have identified a set of DNA changes specific for ovarian cancer and have begun the process of testing these in the lab on cells from patients. Continued funding will mean trialling and testing in blood from diverse groups of women will happen more quickly which will help to maximise accuracy and move the test to clinical trials. We are hopeful that we could be just years away from an early detection test which would be ground-breaking for this disease”.
This year, the brand will again launch “Ovaries. Talk About Them” with an even greater philanthropic vision and a firm 5-year mission which will come to life with the debut of a new unisex line of limited-edition t-shirts and hoodies where 100% of sale proceeds will go directly to research.
The 2021 “Ovaries. Talk About Them” limited-edition t-shirt (available in black and white) and limited edition hoodie are available at CAMILLA AND MARC boutiques nationwide and online at camillaandmarc.com from today.
The Limited Edition “Ovaries. Talk About Them” HoodieCAMILLA AND MARC is encouraging those who buy the t-shirt or hoodie to share their experience on social media with the tags #ovariestalkaboutthem #powerandsolidarity #CAMILLAANDMARC.
