Volunteers put up ribbons in Brighton and Pittsford for early detection of ovarian cancer

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Volunteers put teal ribbons around the towns of Brighton and Pittsford on Thursday to raise awareness for ovarian cancer.

September is ovarian cancer awareness month. Turn the Towns Teal, a national not-for-profit campaign, is encouraging people to tie teal ribbons around their properties and to keep them up all month.

Ginger Ruff, a local representative for Turn the Towns Teal, led the volunteers. Ruff said she’s raising awareness after she lost her mother to ovarian cancer.

“Ovarian cancer is really tricky because a lot of the symptoms are very subtle,” Ruff said. “It’s bloating, it’s incontinence, fatigue, things that women tend to look past and the hardest part is there is no cure for ovarian cancer. So the sooner you get diagnosed the sooner you can get some treatment.”

Ovarian cancer is most treatable in its early stages, but it is not usually diagnosed before it is more advanced.  The goal of Turn the Towns Teal is to get people talking about the disease, so they can recognize the symptoms before it is too late.