When 24-year-old Tora Murphy quit her job to see the world, she never expected her travels would be cut short after just seven weeks.
"I was looking pregnant, like I looked about six months pregnant," Murphy told 9News
"They basically told me that it was stage three cancer and I was just in shock."
Ovarian cancer was confirmed when she flew back to Brisbane.
Murphy underwent surgery to remove an 18-centimetre tumour and undergo a full hysterectomy.
"I didn't even know that people like me could get cancer," she said.
The disease takes the lives of 1000 Australian women every year, with a five year survival rate of 49 per cent.
"I just know that it's going to be that thing looming over me forever, that it might come back."
Now, groundbreaking work by Mater Research scientists is giving new hope by targeting molecules on a key immune system trigger known as dendritic cells.
"We think that by focusing on that cell type in particular, that we'll be able to actually make a vaccine to help fight that disease and to eventually help prevent recurrence," Professor Kristen Radford from Mater Research told 9News.
The vaccine development is being funded by $670,000 raised by the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, which was announced on Thursday as part of $2.4 million in grants.
"These funds have been raised by our community, so that's people out there walking, running, baking, shaving their heads," Georgie Herbert from the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation told 9News.
Murphy's partner and friends were walking 100 kilometres in May to raise funds in her name.
"Their money goes to such a good place," she said.
