MANKATO — It seems a bit odd that Anne Walsh, who has been fighting ovarian cancer since 2009, would be talking about the blessings in her life.

But she is.

It’s been a blessing, she said, that she’s gotten to meet so many new and interesting people. It’s been a blessing to have her brother move back to Minnesota from Alaska, and her sister from St. Louis. And it’s been a blessing to have been able to grow even closer to her partner, Pam Soper, who she’s been with for 18 years.

“I know a lot of people wouldn’t think cancer is a blessing, and I don’t either. But some of the things that have come about because of the cancer have been a blessing,” she said.

And now, Walsh is getting another blessing.

In the past week she was informed that she was one of this year’s Dream Award winners from the Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance. Walsh and a handful of other ovarian cancer survivors will receive funding — in Walsh’s case, $5,000 — to pursue the wish they outlined in their application.

Walsh told MOCA she wanted a “no cancer zone,” a place in her home where she could go where cancer was never discussed, a place that made her happy, and reminded her of the cabin living she and her partner have loved for years.

So this week they, with help from volunteers, began transforming their three-season porch into a four-season porch. When it’s done it will have knotty pine walls, new windows and a gas-burning fireplace. It will be a place, she said, for comfort. Something she hasn’t had a great deal of since 2009, when she was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

She went to the doctor with abdominal pain. By the time she left, they’d found a tumor the size of a baby’s head on one of her ovaries. A biopsy confirmed the worst.

Surgery removed a lot of it. Chemotherapy killed most of the rest. Most, but not all. It came back.

“And when it came back,” Walsh said, “it came back with a vengeance.”

She finished up her second round of chemotherapy six weeks ago. And while she’s dealing with some abdominal pain (for which she’s working with palliative care specialists to combat,) she says she’s in a sort of holding pattern.

Blood tests are holding at a level where aggressive fighting isn’t necessary. Still, she’s battling an infection that requires IV-administered antibiotics. That hindrance, combined with the pain, makes it difficult to really leave the house.

Because of that, the four-season porch is something she hopes will become her refuge.

MOCA Executive Director Kathleen Gavin said deliberations about how or why grants are awarded is not made public. But she did say Walsh’s request was the only one to ask for money to upgrade a room for the kind of reasons Walsh mentioned.

When Walsh learned she’d be getting $5,000 to upgrade that porch, she talked about her reaction on her CaringBridge site:

“The woman on the phone was so patient because I couldn’t even talk. I was belly-sobbing. When I finally got my composure, I thanked her immensely. She was lining up the newspaper to announce the award, asked me to say a few words upon getting the award, etc. ... I started crying again, but was able to say yes to whatever she needed from me. Another God moment. WOW!”

Speaking of God, Walsh says one of the blessings she encountered because of her cancer was in discovering Centenary United Methodist, a place she says was extremely supportive of not only her illness, but also of her relationship with her partner, Pam Soper, with whom she’s had a relationship for 18 years.

Soper says Walsh has remained upbeat and positive, even through the worst of the illness. That, she says, is what has defined her. She said the public may have seen the tough side of Walsh when she was a police officer and police commander. But in this phase of her life, she said, Walsh is all softer side, all positive, all upbeat.

She’s also very much into educating people about ovarian cancer. She wants to get the word out about the symptoms, which include bloating, pelvic and abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full and problems with urination, among others. Also, Walsh says, it feels like a bad case of the flu.

Walsh carries around little symptom cards that she got from MOCA.

“I’ve been trying real hard to educate women,” she said. “And that’s the only way we’re going to be able to start finding it at the early stages.”

Soper said she hopes the porch can not only become a place for Anne to be comfortable, but also a place where friends can come and visit her.

Before she spent so much time in the hospital, Walsh had told Soper she didn’t want to die at home. She didn’t want the fact of her death to define the space in which Soper would have to live.

But now, she’s changed her mind. And that’s another reason they want to get the porch done.

It will not only be a substitute cabin for the north woods trips they may not be taking anymore, or a gathering place for friends to visit and share memories with Walsh. But it will also be the place from which Walsh will depart when it’s time for her, as Soper says, to go home.