For Madelyn Duckmanton, a medical scientist and former pathology CEO, giving isn’t something you talk about. It’s something you carry.
After losing both her sister-in-law Rose and her daughter Letitia to ovarian cancer, Madelyn made a quiet but determined decision.
“I said to myself, I’m going to do this,” she says. “I’m going to do this for Rose and for Letitia, because they can’t.”
That promise became the Letitia Linke Research Foundation — a volunteer-run charity raising awareness and funding research into ovarian cancer.
Like so many women, Letitia had little understanding of the disease before her diagnosis — there is no routine screening test, and the symptoms are often vague. Despite growing up around the medical profession, it had never been something they discussed.
“She’d sat around the table her whole life with us talking about health,” Madelyn says. “But ovarian cancer was never part of that. You just don’t expect your daughter to get it.”
By the time Letitia was diagnosed, the disease had already taken hold, but it didn’t define how she chose to show up.
“She said to me, ‘Mum, I didn’t know anything about ovarian cancer before I got it … I can’t be the only one,’” Madelyn says. “She was vivacious, outgoing … just easy to talk to. And she just wanted to talk to people and make sure other women knew what to look for.”
In 2016, Letitia brought that energy to life through the first Adelaide Silver Style fundraising event for 300 people, raising $85,000.
“Letitia made it happen,” Madelyn recalls. “She always said, ‘I don’t want other people to have to go through what my family has had to go through. I know I’m not going to benefit from this … but someone will.’”
On 1 August 2018, Letitia passed away. In the midst of enormous grief, Madelyn focused on one thing she could control.
“I said to my other daughter, Melissa, ‘We have to do this. We have to let people know we’re not letting this go.’”
Six weeks later, they held another Adelaide Silver Style event.
From there, the Foundation began to take shape — powered by volunteers, community support and a deeply personal mission.
“We’ve got a monthly program to help fund a PhD student,” Madelyn says. “That’s how we make a difference. Over three and a half years, a project we supported has gone from one PhD student to four … that’s incredible.”
The Foundation has also helped keep a potential ovarian cancer screening test moving forward — a project sitting in what researchers call the “valley of death”.
“If you don’t find that next step, those ideas can end up going to nothing.”
The Foundation is built on people with a shared determination to make things better.
“These are not high-profile people,” Madelyn says. “They’re people who’ve just got skin in the game one way or another.”
It was a conversation with Letitia’s son, Tom, that solidified the ripple effect of this work for Madelyn.
“Tom said, ‘Nanny, if you save one woman, you would be saving her family.’ He was saying I could save someone like him from that loss.” — Madelyn Duckmanton, Founder, Letitia Linke Research Foundation
“I know women who have sought treatment after hearing me speak. Some have come back and said, ‘I’m so thankful.’”
What began in grief has become a legacy — one that honours Letitia’s voice and ensures it is still being heard.
Give to a cause this SA Giving Week — discover local organisations and projects, like the Letitia Linke Foundation, that are making a difference across South Australia.
