Heather Watts never thought she would become well-known for hanging teal underwear along the Lincoln Causeway, but the past decade has thrown up lots of surprises for her.
"Our undies were mentioned in parliament, and actually went as far as Canada," Ms Watts says.
"We got lots of emails from around the world about our undies."
Teal is the official colour for ovarian cancer awareness, and Ms Watts wanted a way to grab people's attention.
It is just one of many creative initiatives from the Border Ovarian Cancer Awareness Group (BOCAG), which she started in 2011 after the death of her 33-year-old daughter Kelsey.
She had been battling ovarian cancer for three years.
Now, after 10 successful years and $500,000 raised, the group is finishing up.
They have been finding it more difficult to get volunteers, and Ms Watts says they knew it was time.
"It was a tough decision, but I have some relief as well; it has been a lot of hard work in those 10 years," she says.
And the impact of that hard work is evident.
Their donations paid for two trials at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, which Ms Watts says led to a treatment breakthrough.
They also funded a three-year trial at the Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre.
"We're pretty happy with that," she says.
'No-one knew about it'
Five Australian women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every day, according to Ovarian Cancer Australia, and three of those five will die from the disease.
There is only a 48 per cent five-year survival rate for those diagnosed, and there is no early detection test.
And yet Ms Watts says there was very little awareness out there about ovarian cancer when her daughter died.
"No-one talked about it, no-one knew about it, I really didn't know about it myself," she says.
"So I thought, 'Well, I have to do something' and that did keep me focused and it did help me with my grief."
Ms Watts says she thinks the group had a lot of success because they planned activities that were not sad, and were a little bit adventurous.
As well as flying undies in public places, every year they hosted a pony hop fundraising race at the Wodonga Turf Club honouring Kelsey's long involvement with horse racing.
They have also organised multiple sky diving events, organising as many people as possible to jump out of planes in the name of cancer awareness.
Some things they began will continue — the pony hop will keep hopping due to popular demand, as will their $1 book store at the Wodonga Plant Farm.
And the undies will live on too. Ovarian Cancer Australia now has official teal undies made by Bonds that raises money for ovarian cancer research.
"And that originally was our idea, so we're really happy with what we've achieved," Ms Watts says.
It's about the women
Most of all, Ms Watts says it is amazing to know their work has impacted upon the lives of local women.
There is now significantly more awareness in the community about ovarian cancer, and the Kelsey Watts Trust Fund will continue to contribute to trials at the Regional Cancer Centre.
Ms Watts says the local trial is a particularly big achievement.
"Some local women had a better quality of life because of the trials that were going on and the treatment they were able to get to make their life easier at that time," she says.
"So we have made a big difference, and I am proud of that."
