Witchery White Shirt campaign: Sarah Abo looked around a room of famous women in white shirts today and saw hope for ovarian cancer

Sarah Abo chats with Olympian Noémie Fox while the sun peeks through the clouds high above Sydney Harbour.

Nearby, Bachelor alum Anna Heinrich sips a drink and former Miss Universe Australia Annalise Dalins flashes her signature sunny smile.

Cafe Sydney is abuzz with the voices of influential women, from actresses like Offpsring’s Kat Stewart and former Home And Away fixture Tessa James, to social media tastemakers like Costeen Hatzi.

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They’re all wearing the same white shirt, and they’re all here for the same reason: because by the time they go to bed tonight, an Australian woman just like them will be dead.

Every eight hours, one Australian assigned female at birth loses their life to ovarian cancer.

That’s about 1000 mothers, sisters, daughters, aunties, wives, and best friends dead every year.

That statistic weighs on the mind of every woman in the room today as they mark the launch of the 2025 Witchery White Shirt campaign in partnership with the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation (OCRF).

“The cause is so important,” Abo tells 9honey between MC duties.

“To treat a condition like ovarian cancer, it’s not just, you know, one and done. We need to advocate for it.”

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This is the Today host’s third year as an ambassador for the campaign and it gives her hope to see so many women take part year after year in the hopes of getting Australia one step closer to an early detection test, better treatment, and a cure.

For 17 years now, the annual Witchery White Shirt campaign has worked to raise awareness of this “silent killer” and fundraise for vital research.

In that time, it’s raised more than $17 million and hopes to hit $18 million by May 8, 2025.

Important reason these stars are in near-identical outfits

Despite all that money raised, ovarian cancer remains brutally underfunded and the five-year survival rate has barely shifted in more than 30 years, languishing at under 50 per cent.

Women diagnosed in the advanced stages, which accounts for about 70 per cent of cases, face an even lower five-year survival rate of under 30 per cent.

In the next 10 years alone, ovarian cancer will kill an estimated 10,000 Australian girls and women – unless serious scientific breakthroughs are made.

WATCH: Ovarian cancer survivors share their stories

And that will only happen if the researchers working to combat this disease have access to long-term funding.

Because tackling ovarian cancer isn’t just about wearing a white shirt, starting a conversation about women’s health, or daring to utter the word “ovaries”.

It’s also about investing in research that will save women’s lives.

A conversation can make a huge impact, educating women about the signs and symptoms of this silent killer and dispelling common myths like that a pap smear can detect ovarian cancer (it can’t).

But with more than 1800 women and girls diagnosed every year and more than half that number killed annually, we need to be taking action too.

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That’s why Witchery will donate 100 per cent of gross proceeds from every White Shirt and White Jean sold over the next four weeks to the OCRF to fund life-saving research.

It’s why the current government has promised a $573.3 million investment into women’s health including endometriosis, which has been linked to an increased risk of ovarian cancer.

And it’s why all these famous women have come together today to raise awareness and funds, and demand that we keep fighting for women diagnosed with this cruel disease.

Despite the devastating statistics around ovarian cancer, all Abo sees when she looks around this room of women in white shirts is hope.

“The women in this room are the reason I’m here, they give me hope and I think it’s just so important to try and propel that message beyond this room as well,” she says.

“We’re all somebody’s daughter, somebody’s sister, somebody’s wife, a mother, an auntie, a grandmother – all of that is so vital to the function of society.”

Abo dreams of a future where we don’t lose one woman every eight hours to ovarian cancer, where families aren’t left picking up the pieces because of this silent killer.

It will take time and funding and plenty of research, but she has hope that if we keep pushing that future will become a reality sooner rather than later.

“Being here gives me hope that the next generation will learn more, will advance research more, will hopefully one day find a cure,” she adds.

“This isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight but if the [advocacy] stops now, it might never happen, so we need to keep going.”

Witchery will donate 100% of gross proceeds from every White Shirt and White Jean sold to the OCRF to support ovarian cancer research. Learn more and shop online or in-store.

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