Dear Friends,

In 2003, when my friend and ocular melanoma patient Robert Allen, MD founded the Ocular Melanoma Foundation (OMF), his vision was to accelerate scientific research and awareness of ocular/uveal melanoma and to provide education and support to patients, their families and medical professionals. Now, on our 10th anniversary and as the newly appointed OMF Medical Director, I am proud to say that we continue to be highly successful in accomplishing this mission.

Whether you are a patient, family member, caregiver, referring physician, researcher or other interested party, OMF is here to serve you. As a physician with over 15 years of experience researching OM and treating OM patients, my role is to provide overall medical oversight to OMF. Key to my efforts will be a quarterly e-newsletter called Eye on a Cure and topical webinars that will feature areas of current interest to the OM community. I hope you will visit our website, newsletter, and informational brochures to explore and learn about the numerous clinical, academic, and research programs available to the OM community.

I am truly honored and excited to be the Medical Director of OMF.

 - Peter Hovland, MD, PhD

Learn more about Peter >

Said Harbour, "Ten years ago, virtually nothing was known about the genetics of ocular melanoma," he said. "Now we know four of the major drivers of the disease: GNAQ, GNA11, BAP1 and SF3B1." GNAQ or GNA11 mutations occur in about 85 percent of primary uveal melanomas and arise earlier than SF3B1 and BAP1 mutations. 

When my dad was diagnosed with OM, we had no idea how to react because we had no idea what Ocular Melanoma was. There was information on the internet, but I found myself constantly going back to the OMF website where I found the most useful information and felt a sense of community and support. I wanted to raise money for OMF because I believe in the work that it does. I want to play a part in giving other families who are dealing with this disease a place to find answers and to feel supported.

My goal was to raise $1,500 for OMF and I ended up raising almost $5,000. To be honest, I can't take any credit for the success of this fundraiser because I didn't have to do much; my dad did all the work. He was a writer whose work was well respected in the Vietnamese community. After seeing my initial Facebook post asking for support, my dad's friend posted the information on the South Vietnamese Marines message board and, through that, a Vietnamese newspaper ended up posting a story on the fundraiser. After the story was published, I saw donations come in from as far away as France and Australia-- all because of my dad, because of the life he lived, and the work he left behind. Through the efforts of just a few people who cared deeply about my dad, the small network I had originally reached out to turned into a community that spanned multiple countries. I will never forget this experience, not just because I managed to raise a good sum of money for OMF, but because it provided me with an outlet to deal with my grief and to celebrate my father.

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I am an ordinary person to whom an extraordinary thing happened.  I am a retired clinical psychologist, married to a retired English Professor for 51 years (and counting). We have three wonderful children, and now have 7 terrific grandchildren. My ordinary, pleasant life was blasted aside at the age of 45 when I was diagnosed with cancer in a body part I didn't even know I had, in my "choroid," a layer of tissue behind the retina.  I was told it was serious and that I should have my eye taken out.  I was not told that there was a 50% chance that it could metastasize (spread) to the rest of my body, in which case it would be terminal.

Ocular Melanoma, being an orphan disease, is infrequently seen and was little studied.  At the time it made its first appearance in my eye the recommended treatment was to take the eye out, which I avoided because of my own research which unearthed an alternative treatment.  The chance of cancer spread worked out against me when tumors were found in my liver, which yielded a Stage IV diagnosis and a 6 month prognosis.  That was more than 10 years ago.  Still today no cure or even recommended treatment exists.

Over the now 33 years since I was first diagnosed with eye cancer, I have educated myself in the research about Ocular Melanoma and have gone from clinical trial to clinical trial.  I credit my, so far, 10 year survival against the predicted odds to that research, those trials, and the dedicated researchers who have given generously of their time to help me.  Nothing has stopped the cancer, but it certainly has been slowed by my treatments.

Fortunately my husband and I were retired when this quest for extension of life started, so that we could pursue treatments all over the country.  We are very grateful to OMF's TAG program as it has helped us pay for the extensive travel necessary to our pursuit of life and we are very grateful. 

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On May 20th, OM Warriors around the globe donned eye patches to spark conversation and raise dollars for OM. We received tremendous positive feedback as patients, caregivers and other OMF supporters tweeted and Instagrammed using the hashtags #ocularmelanoma and #eyepatchday.