Feeding hope’s flame
Sisters support annual walk event on mom’s behalf
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When Christa Slatnik and Cindy Sanchez lost their mother to ovarian cancer in 2000, it was devastating.
But when the twin sisters got the opportunity to volunteer for Winnipeg’s first-ever Ovarian Cancer Walk of Hope in 2004, it allowed them to honour their mother and continue her legacy.
“Although losing her was the hardest thing we’ve ever gone through, especially when we were only 23 years old, to try to take such a negative thing and turn it around and help other people makes her loss feel like it’s improving the world by increasing awareness,” said Slatnik.
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Christa Slatnik, left, and Cindy Sanchez are twin sisters who have organized the Ovarian Cancer Walk of Hope the last 23 years.
The walk of hope on Sept. 27 will mark 22 years of the sisters volunteering with Ovarian Cancer Canada to bring the walk of hope to Winnipeg.
They were first asked to join the volunteer committee when Ovarian Cancer Canada came to Winnipeg in 2004, after starting the walk of hope in Toronto in 2002.
The sisters’ mom was a nurse for more than 30 years and ovarian cancer’s vague symptoms went unnoticed in her until it was too late.
At the time, their mother’s colleague was also having trouble identifying all her symptoms, which further delayed the diagnosis.
She died just after the twins graduated from nursing school, two years after being first diagnosed. Once they entered their careers, they quickly noticed the same pattern in other women.
“As we started working with women affected by ovarian cancer, we started to see this same story over and over again, which is another reason why we wanted to volunteer, because something had to be done to drive change,” Sanchez said.
While there are more treatment and testing options now, the survival rate for ovarian cancer has remained unchanged for 30 years and more than 50 per cent of women die after five years, said Slatnik.
Genetic testing is crucial to receive an early diagnosis and shedding light on these facts is an extremely rewarding part of organizing the walk every year.
When they first started, they said going from nursing to organizing an event was a big step out of their comfort zone.
The challenge continues, as they don’t have the same number of volunteers helping each year and newcomers don’t always have the experience to lead the event.
However, they now each have two kids — all between the ages of 13 and 21 — who, along with their husbands, help with the event every year, making it much easier.
After volunteering for more than two decades, the twins say the walk has become a core part of their family.
“We essentially grew up with the walk of hope and every year for a while there, one of us was either pregnant or with a newborn,” Sanchez said with a laugh.
“We’re still nursing but we haven’t been able to let go of the walk of hope yet; it’s a part of who we are and who our family is, even though it’s a lot of time and effort.”
Over their two decades of volunteering for the cause, the sisters have become passionate advocates for increased access to genetic testing.
While it’s been proven it saves lives and can catch the disease earlier, the sisters said it’s still inaccessible. They are part of many different advocacy groups trying to increase awareness.
Looking back, the two say they agree their high school selves would have never thought they’d volunteer as much as they do.
The walk of hope has shown them the importance of volunteering and how change can be achieved with it.
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tiago.resko@freepress.mb.ca
History
Updated on Monday, September 7, 2026 7:42 PM CDT: Corrects spelling of Christa Slatnik.
