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Aunt’s $250K gift helps to fight ovarian cancer

Patty Pitts knew she had to do something significant after receiving an inheritance from her aunt Una Ferguson. With two close friends fighting ovarian cancer, Pitts decided she would use $250,000 to create a research initiative in their memory.
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Patty Pitts was set to have hip-replacement surgery this month, but thatÕs been postponed indefinitely, after elective surgeries were cancelled to make room for COVID-19 patients.

Patty Pitts knew she had to do something significant after receiving an inheritance from her aunt Una Ferguson.

With two close friends fighting ovarian cancer, Pitts decided she would use $250,000 to create a research initiative in their memory. The result is the Carol Lalonde/Marlene Palmer Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, now in place at the B.C. Cancer Agency’s Deeley Research Centre in Victoria.

Pitts said her aunt knew both of her friends and was distressed at their diagnoses.

“Before she died, Una and I had frank discussions about her estate and how I would benefit from it financially,” Pitts said. “And she completely supported my decision to use a significant portion of it to establish this fund.

“I hope it will attract other donations so it grows to the point where it can make a big difference in the very expensive research required to offer more hope to women with ovarian cancer.”

Palmer died in December 2017 and Lalonde died last month. Both knew the fund was in the works, Pitts said, fighting back tears.

“I was able to promise Marlene and Carol that this fund would be a part of their legacy,” she said. “Carol was such a fighter, hell-bent on positive thinking, that she hoped to be at this announcement, but sadly she died on Aug. 21.”

Pitts said that she and Palmer had been friends since both were CHEK-TV reporters in the 1980s, while more recently, Lalonde was a constant companion on international hiking trips.

Lalonde’s husband preferred to do his travelling by motorcycle, Pitts said.

“So that left Carol free to hike with me along the Inca Trail, the Amalfi Coast and through the great national parks of the American southwest.”

The outlook for ovarian cancer needs to improve, said Pitts, noting about half of women with ovarian cancer die within five years of diagnosis.

She said she became “angry and frustrated” at seeing her friends going through chemotherapy, struggling with the side-effects of pain medication and dealing with many other issues.

“Anyone who’s had to witness a loved one wrestle with cancer knows how difficult it is and how helpless it makes you feel,” Pitts said.

While she feels she didn’t have the expertise to offer anything more than support to her friends and their families, the B.C. Cancer Agency’s researchers and oncologists offer hope of better outcomes for women diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

Pitts said she’s learned over the past year how life can change in an instant. “We need to embrace life while we can and [use] whatever means are available to us to improve it for others, and I really hope this fund will do that.”

Deeley Research Centre director Brad Nelson called Pitts’ gift “a story of true friendship, compassion and philanthropy.”

He said Pitts has turned her grief into good news for ovarian-cancer patients, not only in B.C. but around the world.

“It’s going to allow us to really advance our research and move toward clinical trials of some exciting new treatments.”

jwbell@timescolonist.com