It's a good thing Catherine Stephen loves clothes.
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The Armidale teacher wore a different dress each day in October for Frocktober, raising awareness and funds for ovarian cancer research.
Thirty-one days, that's 31 frocks.
"I came close to having 31 dresses!" Catherine laughs, adding that she had a couple of friends who loaned her a few to make the total.
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"I really do like clothes so that was a very good project for me. I love dressing up, I love going to black tie events and cocktail parties and that sort of thing."
Catherine's friend Alexander Cook took the photos of each frock, and they aimed to showcase different parts of Armidale in the photos.
However, Catherine's love of clothes and dressing up was not the reason she took part.
Ovarian cancer research and awareness is a cause very personal to Catherine; she was diagnosed with it 10 years ago, at the age of 29.
"It's quite unusual. I had a very rare type of ovarian cancer, it was very rare in women under 40, and obviously it's very rare for women under 40 anyway to develop ovarian cancer," she says.
The tumour was the size of her head, and Catherine has had many invasive surgeries and tests over the course of the decade. She opted not to have chemotherapy to preserve her fertility, however she did lose an ovary to the disease.
Now, 10 years on and cancer free, Catherine is on a mission to raise awareness about the disease.
"My motivation for taking part in Frocktober was because of my experience, and because early detection is really important, particularly for rural and remote women," she says.
Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynaecological cancer and has earned the title of being a 'silent killer', as symptoms are vague. For many women, the only symptoms are cramps, bloating, feeling full or needing to urinate more often, the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation (OCRF) says.
The only way of diagnosing ovarian cancer is invasive surgery, and often women wake up finding they have had a full hysterectomy. Most women are diagnosed when the disease is advanced.
Early detection tests do not exist for ovarian cancer, and OCRF's priority is developing an early detection test to increase survival rates.
Catherine's fundraising goal for Frocktober was $500, however as donations started quickly rolling in, she upped the goal to $5000. At the end of October, Catherine had raised $6395.
"I was just ecstatic! It was extraordinary. It was far beyond what I ever expected," Catherine says.
"I was also nominated as a finalist as one of the Top 20 'Frockers of the Year' for OCRF."
To learn more about the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation visit ocrf.com.au.
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