Turning My Pain and Loss Into Purpose

As my parents' first child, I carried a heavy, personal burden. I went through repeated miscarriages, endometriosis, adenomyosis, obesity, and several surgeries. Years later, I was finally diagnosed with a condition called antiphospholipid syndrome, which helped explain why I kept losing my pregnancies. But that answer came only after years of grief and unanswered questions. I also carried the heartbreak of knowing I would not be able to give my parents their first grandchild, a painful reality I often endured alone.

My journey started with loss and unanswered questions, but it eventually led me somewhere I never expected: ovarian cancer research, awareness, and advocacy.

At 38 years old, with no children, my health reached a turning point. After looking closely at my medical history, my surgeon strongly recommended I have a hysterectomy and have my fallopian tubes removed to lower my risk of ovarian cancer. Research now indicates that many high-grade serous ovarian cancers, the most common and aggressive subtype, originate in the fallopian tubes. Removing both tubes substantially lowered my risk of ovarian cancer.

Understanding my own risk, and learning that there's still no reliable routine test to screen for ovarian cancer, gave my pain a new purpose. I focused my doctoral research on how technology can help doctors and nurses catch subtle symptoms and warning signs earlier and more accurately.

That work became part of my healing. I took my losses and my unanswered questions and turned them into the foundation of HopeCare Global, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about ovarian cancer, sharing real evidence based education, and advocating for women.

I can't change what I went through. But I can help make the path clearer, and easier, for the women who come after me.

This is how I turned personal pain into something bigger than myself, and turned loss into a legacy of advocacy.