SEA ISLE CITY — The annual Sandy Sprint Sea Isle City 5k and Family Fun Walk is coming up on July 19 to raise awareness for ovarian cancer.
In 2000, Robin Cohen was a nurse working with patients with gynecological cancers. In 2025, she’s the CEO and co-founder of the Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Foundation.
The non-profit organization funds research and resources for ovarian cancer. The organization sprouted from the limited options patients had when diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
“I realized that there was no awareness about the disease,” Cohen said. “No one was talking about it, and the words ovarian cancer didn’t enter someone’s vocabulary until after they were diagnosed. No one wanted to talk about it because it’s a scary disease.”
Cohen met Sandy Rollman when she was Rollman’s nurse in 2000. Rollman was battling ovarian cancer, and Cohen saw firsthand the struggles patients went through during and after their diagnosis.
“I was a young nurse when I took care of Sandy, and we became very close,” Cohen said. “She was 32 when she was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. Every day was a fight to keep her alive. When she passed away, I had a lot of fight left in me.”
When Rollman died in 2000, Cohen decided she wanted to do more. She had no experience with non-profits, but she had her nursing experience and the relationships she’d established from working with ovarian cancer patients.
“Sandy’s sister and I started the nonprofit,” Cohen said. “We based the organization on what wasn’t available to Sandy. I realized there was no awareness of the disease, and it was really difficult because no one wanted to talk about it. It’s a scary disease.”
The Sandy Sprint has been the foundation’s annual fundraiser for 21 years in Philadelphia and expanded to Sea Isle nine years ago. The race is for anyone affected by ovarian cancer to come together over a mutual cause.
The Sandy Sprint has introduced Cohen to people who need a support system and help getting the care they need. Jerry Bradley is an active member of SROCF and became involved in 2008 when his wife, Cindy, was diagnosed.
“It kept me involved,” Bradley said. “The big thing is awareness. Cindy did everything she was supposed to do and still got diagnosed. When Cindy was diagnosed, there were only four chemo drugs available. There weren’t many options for my wife.”
Bradley explained that there now are about 80 chemotherapy drugs available for people with ovarian cancer. A large portion of the Sandy Sprint’s funds goes toward research.
“Part of it is when you’re going through it all with your spouse, you feel like you can’t do anything,” Bradley said. “We wanted to do more.”
When Bradley first became involved in the walk, he noticed there were some changes he could help with to save the organization money and increase attendance. He’s been at every walk since his wife died in 2010.
“It’s a really fun event,” Cohen said. “We have entertainment, a survivor ceremony, an award ceremony and an afterparty. It’s a fun morning and a great family event.”
The Survivor Ceremony is part of the walk in which the foundation celebrates ovarian cancer survivors and hopes to encourage people still fighting.
“The first few years we didn’t do a survivor ceremony because there were hardly any survivors,” Cohen said. “Each survivor comes up, tells her name and years of survivorship. It’s meant for someone newly diagnosed to give them that hope.”
Cohen and Bradley spoke on the fragmentation in the ovarian cancer world and the lack of awareness. Cohen’s main goal is to fund research for patients and create a community.
“There are a lot of health equity issues and stigmatism around women’s health,” Cohen said. “It’s really important to make women’s cancers a global health priority.”
Both explained that ovarian cancer isn’t a widely discussed disease and how the lack of community can negatively affect patients.
“Women are very used to taking care of everyone else but themselves,” Cohen said. “Making sure that a woman is her own best advocate and empowering a woman to be her own best advocate is important.”
In the foundation’s early years, Cohen was focused on growing the organization and creating connections that would allow it to reach more people.
“For the first several years, you rely on your friends and family,” Cohen said. “Now it’s a relief that people come. It’s gratifying. There’s nothing like the support you feel when the community comes together.”
– By JULIA DiGERONIMO/For the Sentinel