Welcome to The H'Evan's Gift PanCAN PurpleStride Team Fundraising Page!
In the summer of 2015, my father was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer.
I can remember every detail from the day he got the call. I had just finished my sophomore cruise on a tanker with Military Sealift Command in the Mediterranean. My family and I drove to St. Augustine, FL to enjoy a few relaxing days at the beach before my sister Katie and I went back to school.
Dad anticipated the phone call as he had some back pain and had an MRI done as a precaution three days prior. The four of us were lounging in the beach condo when his cell phone rang.
It was a mass on his pancreas and it was not benign.
For the first time in my life, I saw my father cry. As he repeated the doctor’s words as she spoke, time stood still.
“Cancer,” “Whipple surgery”
Tears flooded my face and I grabbed my sister’s hand expecting someone to say, “Just kidding, it isn’t cancer.”
My mom stood up, wiped her eyes, and walked to the sliding screen doors overlooking the ocean. Searching for an answer and explanation that would never come.
During the next two years, we battled this monstrous disease that had hold of my father with chemo, radiation and natural remedies. The whipple surgery removed half his pancreas, and portions of his large and small intestines.
Today is March 30, 2024. My dad is part of the 5% of the population that gets this and survives, and he is thriving.
HOW?
To quote one of my favorite authors, Robin Sharma,
“To get the results only 5% of the population has, you have to do what 95% of the population is unwilling to do.”
My father, Michael Wilson Adams, is a lion.
He told himself “I want to see both my girls graduate college.” And that he did.
He had cancer, BUT the cancer didn’t have him.
GRIT. PASSION. DRIVE. And the mindset he recently reinforced in me, “You are an Adams. You don’t quit.”
Before the cancer came, he and my mom were planning that summer to retire and buy a catamaran. Sailing away into the sunset. While the type of boat changed, the dream did not.
Dr. Doug Evans is the doctor who performed my father’s Whipple surgery. My parent’s boat, a whaleback trawler, is named for the gift he received from Dr. Evans and God; M/V H'EVAN'S GIFT. My parent's dream turned into reality.
Goal: Raise $2500
One doctor told my father once that the reason this cancer does not get as much funding is because it’s not popular enough. The cancer that claimed Steve Jobs and Patrick Swazye isn’t popular enough.
Can you imagine someone telling your child that? Sorry, it’s not in the budget. Your disease isn’t as cool or hip.
That’s what we sailors call “BULLSHIT!”
Join me and let’s make a change!
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