Emily’s Story:

Emily Plane was 28 when she died from ovarian cancer in November 2023. She was bright, funny, rebellious and deeply loved, a Jersey girl who had moved to London after university to begin her career and live with close friends. In 2018, after months of bloating and persistent stomach pain, Emily was diagnosed with advanced Stage III ovarian cancer. By then, her treatment had to be urgent and extensive, including major surgery, chemotherapy and years of further operations, infections and complications.

Throughout five years of treatment at The Royal Marsden, Emily faced the reality of ovarian cancer with extraordinary honesty, courage and humour. She wrote openly about the physical and emotional impact of treatment, describing how cancer changed her body, her plans and her sense of self, while never taking away the force of her personality.

But Emily was never only a patient. She became a passionate advocate for the Lady Garden Foundation, using her voice to speak openly about the symptoms of gynaecological cancers and the urgent need for earlier detection. At fundraising and awareness events, she encouraged women to listen to their bodies, keep a diary of symptoms, attend screening where relevant, and push for further investigation if something did not feel right.

In 2023, during a short visit to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show with her mother, Penny, Emily saw the power of gardens to bring comfort, hope and connection to people living through illness. That visit sparked the idea for the Lady Garden Foundation’s Silent No More Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026, a garden created to ignite lifesaving conversations about gynaecological health. In Emily’s own words, she “just couldn’t stop thinking about how much joy and calmness it would bring patients.”

The Emily Plane Fund exists to honour that spirit: her courage, her humour, her refusal to stay quiet, and her determination that no other woman should face a late diagnosis without being heard.