Please join me this Saturday, April 30th, along with my sister, Solange, friends, and others across this nation at this one-day fundraising event called “PanCan PurpleStride” to raise awareness, fund research, and provide support to patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

I created a team called “Whipple Warrior.” The name and the purple t-shirt I’m wearing in this video were given to me by the grandson of a dear motherfriend in MA after surgeons performed a Whipple procedure to remove a rare and aggressive form of cancer growing at the head of my pancreas. I was diagnosed at stage 3, only weeks away from it becoming stage 4, and it was found serendipitously. Months earlier, at the start of 2020, I was only diagnosed with having the presence of a bone cancer protein, which, after additional tests, confirmed that it only required to be monitored. 

The New Yorker in me was able to rationalize every symptom I had until one early morning when, between sleep and wake, I heard what sounded like my mother’s voice whisper, “Dear, something is not right.”

I am here by GOD’s grace and the unconditional love and support, prayers, and well wishes from my family and extended family in MA, friends, and colleagues, and their friends and colleagues. ☺

Because of all of you, I am here. I.am.here, and as one of my Coalition elders told me, “The greatest way to say thank you for all that love and support is to thrive.” 

I believe I will thrive and not just survive cancer, and with your generous support, together, we will help others do the same.

Please visit pancan.org and search for team “Whipple Warrior” in the Join Us tab!

#purplestridenyc 

Giving never felt so good.☺