By Jessica Micallef
John Bowling and Stewart Smillie are doing their bit for the women in their life.
They recently took on the Overland Track at Cradle Mountain in Tasmania, raising more than $16,000 for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation.
They were driven to help by the death of Mr Bowling’s wife, Sue, in 2017 after a two and a half year battle with ovarian cancer.
“We’re just trying to get more public awareness,” Mr Bowling said.
“There was no history in the family of ovarian cancer on Sue’s side or my side. It just means that it can rear its ugly head … anybody can get it.”
The Gisborne residents tackled the six-day trek because they wanted to help prevent other families having similar experiences.
“I’ve got two daughter-in-laws and I’ve got two granddaughters and I’ve got a wife,” Mr Smillie said.
“We don’t have any way of helping them to identify it early … there’s something missing.
“Ovarian cancer deserves to be recognised, it deserves a slice of research dollars to try and find that early detection test.
“We don’t want what happened to John’s family to happen to another family.”
