Channeling the anger

Debbie Bowman had just finished menopause, when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was back in 2015.

“I just thought they’d take those parts out, no big deal,” she recalled.

Instead, she found out she had a rare kind, called low-grade ovarian cancer. “Only about 1,000 people get this across the world each year,” she said.

She’s in remission now, but does get tested every few months. “When you talk to the experts, they consider it a chronic disease. And you should look at it like diabetes or MS.”

Debbie has created two Facebook pages for women and their caregivers who are living with this rare type. “We are all part of the learning curve,” she said.

And she’s feeling supported by MOCA, the Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance.

“They invited me to their Social and Shop. And it was so much darn fun. I cried,” she said. “How did we get so lucky to be here with all of these clothes. And I even had my own personal shopper.”

She and her husband moved down from International Falls about a year ago, and now live in Wrenshall.

“I believe in hope, and there are researchers out there working hard, trying to figure it out,” she told us.