Look Here Blog

Jenn Sommermann keeps the wheels turning in the Monaco Reps office. Outside of the office, she turns a different sort of wheels. Since her recovery from ovarian cancer three years ago, she has been heavily involved in raising money for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund’s (OCRF) work towards finding a method of early detection. Jenn’s method for fund-raising? Doing what she loves, the sport of triathlon, which she credits with helping to save her life.

This weekend, QVC featured Jenn in a Survivor Story segment for their coverage of OCRF and Donna Karan‘s annual Super Saturday fund-raising event in the Hamptons. We sat down with her to talk about her experiences and find out what Super Saturday is (after the video).  Be sure to check out Jenn’s blog as well, with all the details of her journey to finish fifty by the time she’s fifty!

Jenn Sommermann Survivor Story from monaco reps on Vimeo.

When and how did you get involved in the sport of triathlon?

When I turned 40, my best friend called me and said, “We need to do this. We’re old now, we need to do this.” And, I’m up for a good time, and I said, “Sure!” I was not a triathlete before that, I had never done this. I thought, sure, why not. And true to the differences between the two of us, we both did this race. She did it, checked it off her list and never needed to do it again. I, on the other hand, now needed to obsess about it and make it my life’s passion. So I started at forty. And I credit the sport with saving my life. Had I not been that aware of my body, had I not been meticulous about weighing myself and knowing what I look like; I would not have noticed those changes and I would not have detected the cancer when I did.

How did you become involved with OCRF?

When I was lying in the hospital in the middle of chemo, I was reading my triathlete magazine and I opened up my magazine to a two page spread for the US womens triathlon series, benefiting OCRF. It was in three states, lIlinois, California and Washington. And I’m a dreamer, and I like a dangling carrot, and here I am, lying in bed sick as a dog, and I think “I need to do those races, and I need to set my sights on those races. What a fun way to travel around, and see the country, and that’s what I will work towards”.  So I committed to doing those races the following year. That was in 2007. In 2008, I did all three of those races, and I started fund-raising immediately, using this as an opportunity to tell my friends and family that I was well and could race again and all that. I raised $15,000 that first year, which got the attention of OCRF. I became a part of Team Hope, which is people who fund-raise for OCRF through racing (through this triathlon series). And still to this date I am their largest fundraiser. That’ s how it all started.

What were those changes that you noticed?

The symptoms are very subtle, it’s actually called the silent killer. It’s not silent, it just whispers; so you have to really listen for that whisper. Weight gain is one of the symptoms…but what woman doesn’t have some weight gain, especially after forty years old? Bloating is another symptom. Honestly, those are ridiculous symptoms. Most of my weight gain, oddly enough, was around my waist. Women tend to have age-related gain around their hips and belly, but mine was at my waist. So while my pants fit me in my hips, I couldn’t button them at the waist. That’s kinda weird.

Another symptom is indigestion, which can be caused by a ton of different things. Frequency of urination, because the tumor is pressing on the bladder; but a lot of women experience that after having children, so you can justify any one of those symptoms. And fatigue. Honestly. My husband kept telling me, “You’re doing too much.” And my response was, “Yeah, but…not really. Or no more than usual.” So all those symptoms can be justified, or rationalized. Unfortunately in medicine today, diagnosis is about what things aren’t. So you tend to get things ruled out instead of finding out what it is. That is often why detection happens so late in the game, because everything else has been looked at first. I tell women that they know their body best, “If you are not feeling right about your body, and it lasts more than 2 weeks, go to your doctor and make him prove to you that you don’t have ovarian cancer.”

There’s no test for it, this is the big problem. So, the group that I am raising money for is dedicated to finding a method of early detection. We have the technology to cure it if caught in stages one or two. It’s ninety-four percent curable. It’s just not often caught in one and two, it’s caught later. I was caught in stage three – so, statistically, I should not be alive. I had a six pound tumor, it was the size of an eggplant – in this little body!  So, I should not be alive. And for some reason, and maybe this is the reason, I am. I want to teach people; teach women about their bodies. I want to hopefully be a voice of hope. I also want to talk to the men, and tell the men that they are responsible for keeping their eyes on the women in their lives. Men are trained to tell women, when they ask, “does this make my butt look fat?”  to say, “no baby, you look great.” But you know what? Stop. Risk it. Risk it to say to your mother, your sister, your spouse, “You’re looking a little different. Have you been to the doctor lately?” Because it could save her life…we are all in this together.

So, the fifty states, $100,000, how many years?

Four years. I was diagnosed at 42, started at 44, so this is my third year doing it. The first year, I wasn’t planning on this, so I did the three races. As OCRF took notice of me, and I started to talk to the people there, it seemed like a nice opportunity for me to travel around and network with people. Yes, the fund-raising is critical, but I am loving the grassroots part of this. Traveling to the races, especially traveling places where there aren’t cancer centers, where women have never heard of a gynecological oncologist. I went to a town recently in Ohio, where the nearest movie theater is forty-five minutes away. These are not women who have access to medical information. And I started talking to one women and five women started listening, and then five women started listening and had this group of fifty within minutes. So I suggested to all of them to go home and call five friends that night. That impacted, potentially, two hundred and fifty women – in a really really really small town that has got to make a difference. Yes, the money is important, but I am loving the one on one process of talking to people. So fifty states, fifty triathlons, by the time I am fifty. I will have twenty states after this summer. I just did number sixteen this past weekend, and I have four more states this summer. And I’ve raised $28,000, so… I’m on track. I’ll do it.

How did you get involved with Super Saturday?

Super Saturday has been going on for quite some time. It was a fund-raising program developed by OCRF, over ten years ago. OCRF is very connected to the fashion industry. Liz Tilberis, former editor of Harper’s Bazaar, died from ovarian cancer; and it was her legacy to find a method of early detection. She felt very strongly about this, so she partnered with OCRF before she passed to start Super Saturday, the first of which was in her backyard. L’Oreal is one of the biggest sponsors for OCRF. So it’s kind of in our industry already, which is kind of interesting. I’m speaking in a couple weeks at a L’Oreal breakfast, so it’s funny because I’m wearing two different hats. Here (at Monaco Reps) I bill L’Oreal, and then I am going to talk to them, so it’s kinda weird.

Super Saturday is this opportunity for people to buy designer clothes, it’s been called the Rolls Royce of garage sales. Originally, it was just for the people who could access it out in the Hampton’s, and a few years ago, QVC picked up the broadcasting rights. They donate two hours of airtime to Super Saturday. So people are able to shop from their living rooms, and it has made this event much more successful.

And they called me, I’m sure OCRF gave them my name. They wanted a survivor story and they called me. They came to my house and shot footage for about 6 hours, in the backyard and out on my riding trails. And Kelly Ripa, who is very involved with OCRF did the narration, and I think it came out great, it really came out great.