PanCAN? So why this?
This journey is super personal to me, and I will make it my lifes mission to change the meaning of a Pancreatic Cancer diagnosis from almost always fatal to something with options, with hope, and a support network to turn to.
So how did I get here? In April earlier this year (2024), I received a call that my parents neighbor was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. But this wasn’t any neighbor, he was a family friend, someone that I have known the last 38 years of my life; a man that could light up any room he walks in to. I didn’t even know or understand the implications of the words Pancreatic Cancer. I didn’t realize the fate that these two words held to his beautiful family and the devastation this was about to cause… That is until the day my world would officially stop spinning a month later in May of this year (2024). Mother’s Day to be exact. What should have been just another Sunday celebrating my mom turned into “your mom has Pancreatic Cancer” and in that moment, my life changed and I’m not sure it will ever be the same again. How can it? I sit here seven months later writing this, post diagnosis, and anytime I hear those words it’s like I’m being punched in my stomach all over again - And yet we are the lucky ones.
My mom is officially diagnosed with locally advanced stage three… artery and vein encasement And a lot of other technical terms that mean this cancer is a real beast. At this point in the story, I can bore you with a bunch of statistics, such as the only cure is resectability; but only a mere 20% are fortunate enough to catch it early enough to be surgical. So 80% of pancreatic cancer patients find their five year survival between 1% percent and 10% .. And once you let that digest; there are at least 60,000 new US diagnosis’s expected in the next calendar year…. and with all the people that have crossed our path over the last seven months; I feel this statistic may be grossly underestimated. Something needs to change and change NOW!
OK, so PanCAN. Who are they and why? This is an organization I was able to turn to when we were looking for advice and answers. They are a not-for-profit organization who help you navigate through the next steps: chemo, radiation, surgery, genetic testing, finding Pancreatic Centers of Excellence, and are capable of matching you with qualified clinical trials. And more than anything they made me feel empowered and that I was not alone as I am guiding my mom and my family through this journey. An entire lifetime feels like it has zoomed past me over the last seven months, but I’ve accepted a position with the PanCAN Atlanta affiliate as a Teams Chair, which is directly related to the PurpleStride Walk to raise awareness- Saturday, April 26, 2025. This is the 20th anniversary of the PurpleStride walk.
If you are still with me, Let me get to the most important part. My mom, Candace Stringer. To know her is to love her. This is a woman who would give the shirt off her back to help someone else. She spent her whole life serving others only to be met with one of the most cruel fates possibly known to man. Some could say that 72 years is a wonderful and long lived life; I would counter that she is being cheated. I am being cheated. We are all being cheated. I don’t know where to go from here… I am heartbroken. The only thing that I can think is to work to make a difference. So one day when a family receives the diagnosis.. Their world doesn’t stop, their life doesn’t stop, their heart doesn’t shatter into a million pieces. I will work the rest of my life to change this outcome for someone else, someday… Because I’m not able to change this for my mom and my family.
Will you help me in our fight? How?
Support our fundraiser… The money goes to research, treatment, early detection. There are no preventative tests in place to be able to catch this early. Majority of diagnosis’s are already Stage 4 before symptoms even begin to present themselves. That’s why earlier I mentioned we are the “lucky ones” … While mom was having a routine colonoscopy the doctor felt something was off and ordered additional tests (CTs) and the rest is history. He never gave up on her and you shouldn’t give up on your loved one. If only I knew then what I know now then maybe I could be writing a happier ending to this story.
And lastly, I would love to have each and every one of you join me and my family in the PurpleStride 2025.
WE ARE STRINGER STRONG!
Let’s show up for my mom, my family, all the fighters, survivors, lost loved ones, and caregivers alike. Let’s show them we are fighting for each and every one of them and they are not alone.
Thank you for supporting my PanCAN PurpleStride fundraiser. I’m grateful for your support!