talc and Ovarian Cancer: A Personal Story

It was Sue Rizzello’s husband who persuaded her to see a doctor, concerned about the bloating in her abdomen that was making her more and more uncomfortable. Rizzello, then in her late 40s, had assumed it was menopausal weight gain, but agreed to visit her GP. “A smart locum said: ‘There’s something wrong hear,’ and sent me for a blood test … And that saved my life.”

The news was devastating: Rizzello had stage 3 ovarian cancer that had begun to spread. She needed to start chemotherapy promptly and prepare for the complete removal of her uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, and omentum, a procedure that would induce immediate menopause.

It was the summer of 2012, and her husband, a chef, was working at one of the Olympic venues in Windsor, near their then home in Slough. For Rizzello, however, “that whole summer was a blur” of painful treatment, including a clinical trial so challenging that many others couldn’t complete it.

Six months later, the marketing consultant learned her cancer was in remission. “But I was never the same. It was massive. It was an earth-shaking experience that really shook my confidence to the core.”

rizzello, now 60, considers herself blessed, but she doesn’t believe her cancer was simply bad luck – she believes it was caused by talc.