It seems no matter how many times I tell this story, there’s no way to change the introduction, or the ending. With a book now in the process, one that hopefully will be a guide for others, trying to find the words which will grab your immediate attention now like me…struggling.

It is now ten years later….I am a mother, older and hopefully wiser, a freelance writer, author of various books with 3 websites and a collection of Blogs.

My job is simple, and completely by choice. As each day ticks by I tell this story to just one more, giving someone the amour they might need when facing the ‘unknown’.

It was March, 2000, the year Sydney hosted her first Olympic Games, the year Ovarian cancer silently crept into our lives. With no warning, no time, this pariah slipped through the cracks of our world and then proceeded to take each of us down, one by one. Its target? My dear mother, Judy.

Two tickets for a trip to Europe with dad, mum was beside herself with excitement! But her bags were too quickly unpacked, and re-packed for hospital where she would undergo major radical surgery to remove a tumor which had somehow attached itself to her ovary. Had we only known the signs…they were staring us in the face, everyday, as her back ached more, and her tummy swelled.

We just didn’t recognise its name, or the power it had, and by July, while Australia kicked up her heels in celebrations, my family was thrown into sudden mourning, for the silent killer had taken her. Just as quickly as it had made its presence known, it also managed to tear her from our arms.

Towards the end, mum grew silent and so too my willingness to believe that this could possibly be her end.

It is only now, through my words that I am able to admit my fears. I promised my mother I would tell this story, to any who would be prepared to listen. My ‘army of words’ now tell the world so that mum’s death wouldn’t leave her as a mere statistic. Judy Burns existed, a woman with a natural ability to breathe 'life' into everything around her, always sharing her love and her joyous laughter. Judy Burns was 63 when she lost her battle, leaving behind a very lonely husband, and two motherless daughters......one desperately searches for a test, a promise she must keep.

Debbie Stevens 2009