Labor vows $8 million to combat 'silent killer' ovarian cancer
Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten wears a teal ribbon as he meets ovarian cancer survivors and their families at the Queen Victoria Women's Centre, as part of the 2016 election campaign in the federal seat of Melbourne. (AAP)
Bill Shorten knows first hand no amount of time or tears can fill the void of loved ones lost to the silent killer - ovarian cancer.
He has also witnessed the courageous battle of survivors like family friend Margaret Mikkelson.
So the $8 million pledge to ovarian cancer research over four years Mr Shorten will announce on Wednesday in Melbourne will take on personal significance.
"Margaret is a loving grandma of seven and a mighty warrior," the opposition leader said.
She endured all the hardship of chemotherapy and surgery and came through - an outcome she attributed to luck, he said.
"Finding a cure for ovarian cancer is about making sure brave women and their loving families don't have to rely on luck," Mr Shorten said.
Ovarian cancer is the second most common cancer for women in Australia with almost 1500 newly diagnosed every year.
A thousand women die every year and only 43 out of every 100 women are still alive five years after being diagnosed.
There is no screening test so many women are unaware they have the condition until the disease is at a late stage.
The symptoms can be hard to spot and are commonly mistaken with menopause or being run down.
Mrs Mikkelson told AAP she took a heartbreaking call with the bad news from her doctor on Christmas Eve six years ago.
"It was pretty traumatic at the time," she said.
After experiencing ongoing tummy pain her husband had convinced her to get checked out and doctors found a cyst on her ovary.
"At the beginning of this year they gave me the all clear," Mrs Mikkelson said.
She said the extra money comes at a tough time for researchers - some ovarian cancer trials have been cancelled because of lack of funding.
Mrs Mikkelson lamented that ovarian cancer struggled to gain the same recognition as breast cancer and described it as a "silent killer".
Mr Shorten will take his campaign to Darwin in the afternoon, a day after Labor's NT senator Nova Peris announced she's bowing out of federal politics amid speculation she's being considered for a job with the AFL.
Share a tip-off, video or photo with us
Most viewed in Australia
One Nation’s drastic plan to slash migration by 750,000 slammed by farmers
Australian woman who died after falling from cliff near Bali was Queensland ecologist
PM ‘stunned’ over Pauline Hanson’s attack on his late mother
Sydney family’s warning after discovering father’s lost super years after his death
