Dance-a-thon at Claremont Hotel raises awareness about ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer survivor Nina Schnall dances at the Claremont Hotel and Spa. Dec. 2, 2023 Photo: Priya Levine
BERKELEY, Calif. - A weekend dance-a-thon at the Claremont Hotel and Spa in Berkeley raised more than $20,000 for ovarian cancer.
The event was spearheaded by Nina Schnall, 53, an Oakland dancer, writer and yoga instructor, diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2020.
"I'm hoping that we are going to break the silence around ovarian and gynecological cancers," she said Saturday. "I'm hoping we can start a conversation around this that we haven't had before so that fewer women die of this terrible disease."
Ovarian cancer is still the deadliest of the reproductive cancers and the five-year survival rate for women like Schnall, diagnosed with "distant" stage cancer, is only 31%.
Ovarian cancer is known as the "silent killer" because 75 to 80% are only diagnosed in the advanced stages of the disease.
If diagnosed early, the five-year survival rate is 93%.
However, there is no screening for ovarian cancer, and the signs and symptoms are easily missed or misdiagnosed, organizers said.
The fundraiser is still $7,000 shy of its goal. To learn more and donate, click here.