Michelle Kendrick

April 2013

Editor’s note: this is a departure from our normal featured story in that it is told from the perspective of a man, who has lost both his mother (to an unspecified cancer of her abdomen) and his daughter to ovarian cancer. At age 85, Jack will hike portions of the Pacific Coast Trail to raise money for ovarian cancer awareness in their memory.

On an October day in 1941, when I was 13, I arrived home from school to find my mother crying. She would not say why. My father came home from work at 7 p.m. and my mother cried out “the doctor said I had to have an operation within the next 30 days and you know what that means.”

As if put there with a branding iron, those words have remained with me all of my life.

The operation was performed with an 18 inch incision in her abdominal wall. It was cancer and was beyond help. My mother was sent home to die. My Dad, brothers and I watched her die slowly over the next eight months. The last two months of her life, her body became so swollen from accumulated fluids that she could no longer sleep lying down. She slept propped up with pillows on the couch. My mother passed away on July 15, 1942. She was only 42 years old.

Exactly 60 years later in 2001, my daughter, Michelle, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She had everything to live for and at 37 years old she had what she described as a “fairy tale life.” Michelle was the mother to two small beautiful children. She was a tenured English professor with a PhD at Washington State University in Vancouver. She was respected in her field and frequently asked to speak at conferences across the United States. She was a published author, and a marathon runner who completed the Portland Marathon and the Boston Marathon, which she ran with me.

After her initial diagnosis and surgery, Michelle endured three years of intense chemotherapy and radiation, and was declared cancer-free. But by the end of the fourth year, the cancer had returned.

Michelle’s story was a repeat of what had happened to my mother. My daughter, Michelle, slowly wasted away and passed away on September 30th, 2006. She was 42 years old.

In memory of my mother and my daughter, I will be raising money on behalf of ovarian cancer awareness. To do this, I will hike from the Mexican border, north, on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). My journey begins around the first of May, 2013.

How far I can hike remains to be seen. I know my pace will be slow, most likely no more than 10 miles per day. I will be 85 at that time, but have been blessed with a body that still allows me to hike.

To donate to my cause, in memory of my mother and my daughter, please send your donations to the Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Oregon & SW Washington, PMB 243, Suite 103, 16420 SE McGillivray, Vancouver, WA 98683.

Or, donate online at www.ovariancancerosw.org where you can also follow my journey and see how much money is raised.