Together with our coworkers, families and friends, Floor 20 of Lurie Children’s Hospital is taking steps to end pancreatic cancer at PanCAN PurpleStride on Saturday, April 29, 2023.

Recently “Pancreatic Cancer” has become a much too common term around our work unit. In 2022 alone, the selfish disease interjected itself into four of our nurses’ families. Within five months of each other, Nurses Ally Perbohner and Lori Morales fathers, Eric and Robert, passed away from Pancreatic Cancer. In the same year, Nurse Julie Bolos-Haywood’s mother, Sophia, fought the disease and is now thankfully in remission. Most recently, at just 40 years old, our own coworker, Lindsay Gavin, was given the unexpected diagnosis of Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer in December 2022. A beautiful wife and mother of two precious little girls, Lindsay has been a nurse at Lurie Children’s for 17 years. She is full of life and fun, always bringing laughter to everyone around her each workday-whether it’s her coworkers or the patients and families she is helping.  Lindsay is now fighting the fight of her life and her fight is our fight! 

As pediatric nurses and healthcare workers, it is our job to fix boo-boos, dry tears and help patients through difficult times. On Floor 20, we even treat patients after pancreas transplants, Whipple procedures and various tumor removal surgeries. So we should have the answers and fixes when it comes to Pancreatic Cancer, right?! If only this were the case. The Pancreatic Cancer diagnoses affecting our friends and families has left us feeling helpless and heartbroken. In a moment of “this is hitting too close to home, too often” and “what can we do to help?”, we came together to do we we could. As nurses we want to fix problems, so what we can’t fix, we fight!

This is why we walk. We walk to find a cure. We walk to spread awareness. We walk for those we have lost, those who have fought and those who are still fighting. We walk for Eric. We walk for Robert. We walk for Sophia. We walk for Lindsay! 

——————

We want to make the biggest impact on the lives of pancreatic cancer patients – and we need your help to do that!

PanCAN PurpleStride is the number one way PanCAN raises money to fund vital research that can bring new treatment options to patients, and gives them free, personalized one-to-one support through PanCAN Patient Services.

Here’s where you come in! We’ve set an ambitious fundraising goal – because the more money we raise, the bigger impact we make – and would appreciate a gift of any size to help us get there.  

PanCAN PurpleStride is for everyone, and we’d love for you to join our team! Just click the Register button at the top of this page and follow a few easy steps to get set up. And anyone who registers and raises $50 will receive an official PanCAN PurpleStride 2023 T-shirt!

Can we count on you to get us one step closer to the day where pancreatic cancer patients don’t just survive but thrive?

Patients and families need us now more than ever.

Thank you for your support!