Dear Family and friends,

For the last thirteen years, Michael and I have been fundraising for Purple Stride in memory of Mama Betty, my birth mother, whose life was cut short by pancreatic cancer. When I reconnected with my birth family 14 years ago, it was too late to meet and thank her in person, so I decided that the best way to thank Mama Betty for the gift of my life was to help fight the awful disease that took hers at the way too young age of 58, less than a year after diagnosis.

Mama Betty was not the only member of my family to die of pancreatic cancer – it also claimed the lives of my Uncle Jon and my great grandfather Benjamin. And in the thirteen years we have been fundraising to combat pancreatic cancer, we have learned of so many friends and relatives whose lives have been touched by this deadly illness – through the death of parents, grandparents, siblings, spouses and dear friends. Pancreatic cancer, which runs in families, is one of the most lethal, and even though the survival rate has increased from 5% to 13% over the last thirteen years, the disease still claims 87% of its victims within 5 years, and most within one. It is also very hard to detect, as symptoms are often vague until the cancer has reached too advanced a stage for surgery. But the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCan) is working tirelessly to change these statistics through advocacy, research and awareness campaigns. Every June, PanCan gathers in Washington DC (even virtually during the pandemic!) to advocate for increased government support. They also fund researchers who are searching for cutting edge treatments, and sponsor a PALS program for pancreatic cancer patients to offer support and to  discuss treatment options and clinical trials. Your donation to Purple Stride will help further PanCan’s mission to know, fight and end pancreatic cancer.

Thanks to our amazing family and friends, our 2023-24 campaign raised $7747, which was applied to the April 2024 Nationwide walk. The next walk, which we will be participating in virtually because of Shabbat, will be in April 2025. We are opening our campaign now, to allow us to honor Mama Betty's recent and Uncle Jon's upcoming yahrtzeits, to help kick off Pancreatic Cancer Awareness month (November), and to give PanCan the gift of the early use of our donor's funds in 2024 (if you did not donate to our last campaign until 2024, snd would like to wait until calendar year 2025 to donate, you have until April, and we're happy to contact you again after January). The credit for all donations will be applied to next Spring's Purple Stride, helping our team, Imagineers United, and the Boston contingent reach their fundraising goals. Our goal is to raise at least as much as last year, so we are setting our goal at $7800. We understand that many of you are donating extra money to Israel during its continuing war with Hamas, but unfortunately cancer doesn't go away in war time, so we hope you are able to help us in our continuing support of the important work of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. You can donate by clicking on the link below. 

Thanks so much for any amount you can give, and may your charitable donation be a merit for the souls of those killed in over a year of continued attacks, and help give strength to all those fighting against terror, in Israel and around the world.

Sara Salzberg

We stride for Mama Betty, Uncle Jon and Great Grandpa Ben, but we also keep in mind:

Debbie's husband

Yisroel's mother

Dov's mother

Aharon's father

Steffi's brother-in-law

Annie's brother-in-law

Rachel's grandmother

Rise's grandmother

Anna's grandmother

Berniece and Selma's brother

Berniece's husband

Faye's mother

Anne's father

Karen's father, grandfather and great uncle

Craig and Asher's brother

Estee and Roz's father

Rhonda's brother-in-law

David, Jon and Richie's father

Alison's husband

Arielle's mother

Eric's father

Steve's father

Margaret's friends