Commitment, drive, and passion inspire redirection. My graduate professor of biochemistry demonstrated all three. He shared efforts and findings of his Alzheimer’s research during class and this sparked my own research interest. I knew I could not go back to more of the same after the experience of his class – I needed a change. Events that followed created the opportunity to work for the Gynecologic Cancer Center of Excellence with a focus upon patient navigation. Four months later, the need to strengthen supportive outreach to patients took on new meaning when my own mother was diagnosed with advanced stage gynecologic cancer. Simultaneously as a patient advocate both towards women I met daily at work and a woman I have known my whole life, I witnessed the courage, hope, and drive these women demonstrated to inspire change. Perhaps one day letters within the word courage will become hidden to expose cure. Many thanks to all united in this collective effort to redirect the silence of ovarian cancer towards a profound echo of better understanding.
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”
-Socrates
Victoria Olowu
