Karen's Story

Karen Ehrlich was a brilliant, young lawyer who, at 40 years of age, had firmly established her credentials in the highly competitive legal world. But in spite of her youth and fitness, Karen was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1993. She had experienced abdominal pain and swelling for only a few days prior to her operation at the Gynaecological Cancer Centre of the Royal Hospital for Women. Surgery was followed by a course of chemotherapy.

A second operation for recurrent disease was performed in November 1993, which was followed by radiation therapy and a course of high dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation. In spite of this treatment, Karen’s disease recurred 18 months later, and further chemotherapy followed. She eventually succumbed to her disease on July 18 th, 1996, just 39 months after the initial diagnosis.

Although actively fighting her disease from the beginning, Karen nevertheless got on with her life. She was someone who loved life and was passionate about her husband Josh, and her two young boys, Marcus and Lewis.

Karen had the personality and drive to make a difference to other people’s lives. After her diagnosis of ovarian cancer, she forged ahead with her legal career, establishing an environmental law firm – Craig & Ehrlich – with her good friend, Donna Craig. She also saw the need for research into ovarian cancer, so that others would not have to face the same problems that she had had to deal with.

She became an active member of our Royal Hospital for Women Foundation Sub-Committee, which was dedicated to raising money for research into gynaecological malignancies. She was a generous donor to the research herself, and it was Karen who endorsed the name GO Fund. She saw GO (standing for gynaecological oncology) as giving a positive message, and she was confident that with her dedication and drive, and that of the other members of the Committee, we would eventually be able to find a solution to the early diagnosis and effective treatment of ovarian cancer.

She had planned to initiate a fundraising campaign among the legal profession, but unfortunately she lost her battle with ovarian cancer before this could begin. As Karen’s condition deteriorated, she moved her office into her home, but she continued to work actively until 3 days before her death. She died with a vision that one day, others would benefit from medical science in a way that was denied to her.