In the year since Leane died, her ‘killer’ has claimed 1000+ women

Melbourne was colder than it had been in days when Leane Flynn died on September 5, 2023, after a long journey with ovarian cancer.  
Her daughters Amelia, Laura and Anabel Flynn still feel the chill one year on, even as they sit side-by-side on a wooden bench, dappled in golden Indonesian sun.
Even on a family holiday to Bali, 4,425km away from the Melbourne home where Leane raised them, the sisters feel her absence down to the very molecules of their being.
READ MORE: Leane had to plan her own funeral after doctors found huge tumours
“It’s an emotional pain and it’s a physical pain. It’s been a year, but our grief is still the exact same,” Laura tells 9honey.
Time seems to move differently now, Anabel and Amelia say, but grief does funny things to the people left behind. And Leane left so many people behind.
A prolific advocate and Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation (OCRF) ambassador, Leane was diagnosed at 49 and had almost 50,000 people following her journey on social media.
Her death made national headlines.
But in the 365 days since Leane’s death, ovarian cancer has claimed the lives of about 1000 other Australian women and nothing seems to have changed.
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The facts are this; there no early detection test for ovarian cancer, about 70 per cent of cases aren’t caught until the advanced stages, less than half of all people diagnosed survive more than five years, one woman dies every eight hours, and there’s been no significant treatment developments in 30 years.
Ovarian cancer is the most deadly of all gynaecological cancers and in 2024 alone, the OCRF estimates that of the 1805 people diagnosed, 1067 will die.
And if nothing changes, if these damning statistics remain the same, those numbers are expected to rise by 80 per cent over the next 25 years. 
By 2050, we could be losing over 1300 women a year to this disease.
We’re already projected to lose 10,000 Australian women and girls to ovarian cancer in the next decade alone. Something has to change.
“We are fed up with statistics that barely change and are determined to make sure our voices are heard,” OCRF CEO Robin Penty tells 9honey.
She vividly remembers her grandmother’s sudden, painful death from ovarian cancer in the 1980s and is frustrated the lack of progress means women diagnosed today receive treatment that’s “largely the same”.
“Considering the medical breakthroughs we’ve seen in other cancers, where are the life-saving advancements for people with ovarian cancer?” she says.
“With proper and proportional investment in medical research, clinical trials and supportive care we could change this … we just need to move from a drip feed to turning the tap on full.”
Even now, in an era where Australians are more open about their health than ever before, people don’t want to talk about this disease.
They don’t want to talk about gynaecological cancers, about reproductive organs, about vague symptoms that begin with something unusual in a woman’s underwear, her bathroom habits, her pelvic region.
The silence has been so all-encompassing, Australian brand Camilla and Marc started selling shirts emblazoned with the words ‘Ovaries. Talk About Them’ just to get people to open their mouths. And their wallets.
In four years, the campaign has raised $1.7 million for the UNSW Gynaecological Cancer Research Group and it’s not the only one.
Frocktober raised $1.1 million to support ovarian cancer research in Australia last year; Ovarian Cancer Australia raised $500,000 on its annual Giving Day this year; Witchery’s annual White Shirt Campaign has contributed over $16 million since its inception in 2008.
As well as raising much-needed cash for research, these campaigns and the ambassadors that front them raise vital awareness of ovarian cancer, inspiring the likes of former Yellow Wiggle Emma Watkins to get involved.
In fact, it was Leane herself who inspired Watkins to become an advocate.
“I remember being so taken aback by her clarity when she spoke, and her transparency about what she was going through,” Watkins tells 9honey.
The two women became fast friends and met up again and again at ovarian cancer events around the country.
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Then Leane died, and suddenly all the dire statistics Watkins had learned because of her hit so much closer to home.
“There aren’t that many advocates with this disease,” she says, “because it takes their life so quickly.”
More than half of all people diagnosed with ovarian cancer die within five years.
Leane was 55 when she died, six years after her diagnosis. She got more time than most, but it wasn’t enough time – could never be enough time – for her girls.
Nor was it enough time to actually see the statistics around this terrible disease change, though Leane worked tirelessly in the hopes of making it happen.
Now her daughters have picked up where she left off.
“I remember mum saying, ‘I don’t want this to end with me,'” Anabel says and she and her sisters have no intention of letting that happen.
Now OCR ambassadors themselves, Amelia, Laura and Anabel will keep advocating until there is an early detection test, better treatment options, and better outcomes for women like their mum.
Laura adds, “We’re not going to let our mum be taken by such an insidious disease, and then be like, ‘OK, I guess that’s it now,'” Laura says.
Amelia adds, ”if she could do it when she was so sick, the least we can do for her is continue.”
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Just days before the anniversary of Leane’s death, they got a hopeful update; the UNSW Gynaecological Cancer Research Group are one step closer to an early detection test. 
Such a test could have caught Leane’s cancer earlier and could one day save the lives of women like her. It’s the kind of progress she would have loved to live to see.
Instead, the women she left behind – her daughters, friends like Watkins and Petty – are determined to keep the progress going in the hopes that one day, women like Leane who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer get to live.
“We were so lucky that Leane catapulted ovarian cancer into the spotlight. We honour these amazing women by continuing their legacy,” Watkins says.
“It’s a slow journey, but we are moving every day.”
Grief is a slow journey too.
The Flynn sisters haven’t healed. They probably won’t for a long time. But carrying on their mum’s legacy helps them feel close to her, even now.
It’s cloudy today in Melbourne, where they mourn her in the home where she raised them, but it’s a little warmer than it was this time last year.
“We know she’s here with us every step of the way,” Laura says through tears, “but it doesn’t make it any easier.”
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