Mayor Noni West, left, and Joan Doyle.
September is officially Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month in the Doylestown Borough community, and the town is turning teal to support it for the 16th year.
At Monday night’s Doylestown Borough Council meeting, Mayor Noni West read a proclamation of the Turn the Towns Teal campaign and presented it to local Turn the Towns Teal organizer and former Councilwoman Joan Doyle.
Turn the Towns Teal is a national event that raises awareness of symptoms and signs of ovarian cancer.
Every year, teams of volunteers hit the streets of Doylestown Borough to hang about 400 teal ribbons around lampposts in town. This year, the event will occur Saturday morning in the downtown.
“In honor of Turn the Towns Teal campaign, whereas our community is committed to fighting cancer in all its forms, and whereas Turn the Towns Teal is a national effort to create awareness of ovarian cancer and its subtle symptoms, this is a campaign where we’ve been a proud participant for 15 years, regardless of other challenges our community has faced,” said West. “We are proud to declare our support for this worthy campaign and declare September as Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month in our community.”
West said the borough is proud to display the ribbons of ovarian cancer throughout the downtown area and called upon residents, organizations, and healthcare providers to raise awareness of ovarian cancer “as well as other cancers and the importance of early detection to let those in our community live longer, healthier lives.”
Joan Doyle, former councilwoman.Doyle, who two terms on council from 2008 to 2015, thanked West, council and Borough Manager John Davis for their support over the years and invited West and the community to volunteer on Saturday.
“Ovarian cancer is a very silent and subtle cancer, and most women mistake the symptoms for something that has to do with another abdominal ailment,” Doyle said. “The ribbons we tie on 400 lampposts in business aarea of Doylestown all have the words ‘Know the Symptoms’ on them and we encourage people to stop, take down the website information, and to go online and learn the many symptoms.”
“The earlier the prognosis, the better the diagnosis is very, very true for ovarian cancer,” Doyle said. “Thank you very much for the community support, the media and for the Borough of Doylestown.”
Anyone who wants to volunteer on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. can gather at Starbucks art Main and State streets, Doyle said.
“We do have a brief welcome presentation and a few speeches, and we do something that is not done by any Turn the Town Teal participants in the entire country: We honor our survivors, who we consider our warriors,” Doyle said. “Some of them have been long-term survivors and are considered free of the disease, and others are still in treatment and always will be.”
Doyle said the event on Saturday acknowledges the women that have lost their battle to ovarian cancer by reading out their names.
“Volunteers are needed,” she said.
