© Provided by Bauer Media Pty Ltd Carmen and her sister, Paula. (Source- Woman’s Day)
Carmen Duncan was a beloved mother, grandmother and sister. She bravely fought and survived breast cancer, bowel cancer and thyroid cancer. Unfortunately on February 3rd 2019 she died of vaginal cancer – a rare cancer that effects only 1% of the community.
Carmen loved life so much. With her beautiful spirit in mind, her sister Paula Duncan now wants to help other women get the assistance they need to hopefully restore their lives. She joins the AGCF as an Ambassador as “we all need to do more research into the cause, effect and hopefully cure for these horribly painful diseases.”
“My sister was a very healthy woman,” says Paula. “She looked after her well-being and loved her family and children will all her heart. I want to remember and treasure her life and help other women.”
Paula Duncan has worked extensively on stage, film and television, and has been a household name throughout Australia for over half of her life, not only as an actress but as one of Australia’s most loved personalities. She has also raised over $12 million dollars for various charities and now wishes to help raise funds for the AGCF in honour of her sister.
“On taking on the AGCF, I hope over the next twelve months to build awareness of gynaecological cancers to get us all thinking and talking about these unspoken cancers. We are also going to establish a Fellowship in my sister’s name, which will be awarded to an
Australian Research PHD who submits the research proposal judged to be the highest quality by the AGCF Medical Advisory Committee.”
Paula will be staging two events from 2019-2020 to raise awareness, spread important medical information and fundraise. She also wants to focus on engaging men as part of her efforts so that they can gain a deeper appreciation and understanding of gynaecological cancers.
“Just like many other cancers, without research on prevention or cure there is little hope for so many women to survive these horrible diseases,” says Paula. “If we had never got behind breast cancer… If we continued to ignore prostate or bowel cancer – how many more lives would have been lost? In many cases women suffer symptoms in silence when they have an abnormality in their reproductive or gynaecological organs… and yet that is the place where women bring forth life into the world.”
We thank Paula for her support and remember her beautiful sister Carmen, who was much loved and highly respected by all who had the pleasure of knowing her.
If you want to donate to the Carmen Duncan Memorial Fund, you can visit: https://www.givenow.com.au/agcf/