PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Dwain and Karen Johnson say their daughter was well loved, and the Faith Deanna Johnson Act, signed into law last week by Delaware Gov. John Carney, is named after her because of the love she had for others.
"Faith was an answer to prayer. She was born as a preemie and was a fighter from birth," said her mother, Karen.
"Faith was a dynamic young lady," said her father, Dwain. "She could do anything she put her mind to."
The Johnsons started the Faith Deanna Johnson Foundation after their daughter lost her fight with ovarian cancer in 2021.
In 2016, Faith graduated from the University of Delaware with a degree in film and journalism. She wanted to produce socially responsible films and uplifting news reports. She continued her post-graduate education at Temple University. While she was in graduate school, Faith was chosen as a paid intern at NBC 10 in Philadelphia. At age 22, she graduated with a master’s degree in film studies.
By age 26, Faith was living her dream, working on TV and film productions in Atlanta. Then she started having problems.
“She was on set. She called me one day and she was just in such excruciating pain," said her mother. "I said, 'Faith, you have to leave work and go to the emergency room right now.'"
Karen Johnson says Faith saw a lot of doctors. Her symptoms originally were attributed to complications due to fibroids, but her mother says she knew it was much more than that.
"We feel the medical community could have heard her better. They could have taken her seriously," she said.
Karen flew Faith back home. In 2019, she was finally diagnosed with ovarian cancer at Penn Medicine.
Her mother says when Faith realized the disease could take her life, they started having conversations about what she wanted to do. She said one thing her daughter wanted to do was to help others — "to make people aware, especially young ladies aware, about what a silent killer ovarian cancer can be."
Not long after that, the Johnsons contacted Delaware House Speaker Valerie Longhurst, who immediately got to work on the Faith Deanna Johnson Act.
"I told her that our foundation wanted to do something to bring awareness about ovarian cancer, and she said, 'I hear you and I want to do something,'" Dwain Johnson said.
The measure, which Carney signed into law last week just moments after the Senate approved it, guarantees ovarian cancer testing through health insurance for those at risk, and for women who have received treatment for ovarian cancer. Dwain says this means thousands of young lives will be saved.
"Faith would have been very pleased. I think she's looking down on us just saying, 'Go ahead, Dad. Go ahead, Mom. Get it done.' I'm just grateful," said Dwain.
"God is bringing something good out of this, and we can save and make some other young lady aware — more importantly the medical community — so that when another brown person, young lady, is sitting in front of you, you just might go that extra mile."
More than 19,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and nearly 13,000 women will die from it, this year, according to the American Cancer Society.