Hello,

Welcome to team "David Loh's Low-Gravity-Day".  I am a 61-year old lifelong alpine rock climber who was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer on Jan. 20, 2025.  On that day, while the world was transitioning and making sense of the change in administration, I was in a different transitional space making sense of my new alternate realty of being a newly diagnosed pancreatic cancer patient.

My team name was suggested by my nephew Kyle and is a play on a climbing phrase of a "Low-Gravity-Day" when a climber feels "on it and is winning the battle over gravity".  The team name felt apropos, weaving my lifelong pursuit of alpine climbing into my most significant climb ever; to successfully navigate my cancer diagnosis and safely make it back to "terra firma."

Since my initial diagnosis, I personally have been touched and benefitted from PanCan's work through their patient and family/caregiver educational resources, and indirectly via their financial support of clinical trials, precision medicine, genomics, and other core research for Pancreatic Cancer.  From the early days of my diagnosis in late January, PanCan's educational resources have been invaluable in gaining an understanding of my condition and staying abreast of "what does this mean", "what's next", and "how do I position myself for the best possible outcome."

There are two primary paths for you to contribute:

(please see the "A few additional notes" section below for some quirks in the PanCan website)

• If you would like to physically attend the event on Sat, April 26, and receive an official PurpleStride t-shirt: 
• Register as a "Team Member" by clicking on the purple "JOIN THIS TEAM" link near the top of this page 
• Create a PanCan PurpleStride account via the account registration wizard. You will now be linked as a Team Member to my "David Loh's Low-Gravity-Day" team 
• To receive an event T-Shirt, you must raise $50 (a "self-donation" of $50 qualifies you for the t-shirt)
• Please note, you must physically be at the event to receive the t-shirt.  Unfortunately, PanCan indicates that they cannot ship t-shirts separately (see the FAQ link below)
• FYI, the PanCan FAQ does not indicate if another team member (that is physically at the event) can pick up your t-shirt on your behalf.  I will try to see if this is possible as we get closer to the event day
• As a team member, you can solicit additional donations from your personal network to maximize your contribution.  The process for individuals or organizations to donate on your behalf is covered in the next item below​

• If you would like to donate on behalf of a team member (i.e., you will NOT physically attend the event and do NOT wish to receive an official PurpleStride t-shirt:
• Click on the turquoise-colored "DONATE" link near the top of this page
• Select the team member you are donating on behalf of (or make a general donation to the team), click NEXT
• Enter your payment information

• If you wish to donate via a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) (e.g. Schwab DAFgiving360, Fidelity Charitable, Vanguard Charitable):
• From your DAF, request the donation to:

Pancreatic Cancer Action Network
Donation Processing Center
Po Box 5041
Boone, IA 50950-0041
(877) 272-6226
EIN: 33-0841281
• • Please include the following information on your request:
  • The PurpleStride location: April 26, 2025 PurpleStride Sacramento
  • The Team Name and Team Member: "David Loh's Low-Gravity-Day, Team Member: [Name] (optional)"
  • How you would like your name and donation amount to appear on this page, i.e.
  • [Your Name], [$nn.nn donation amount]
  • [Your Name], "Anonymous donation amount"
  • "Anonymous", [$nn.nn donation amount]
  • "Anonymous", "Anonymous donation amount"
  • The PanCan Donation Processing Center will post your donation to the designated PurpleStride Team / Team member within one week of receiving your DAF donation.

In the spirit of raising awareness to the broadest audience possible, please feel free to share this information with anyone you think would be interested in donating.  Through our collective donations, we can contribute to this ambitious and worthy goal of finding new and improved treatment modalities for this traumatic disease.  No gift is too small, and a gift of any size will help patients and families facing a pancreatic cancer diagnosis.  Also, since PanCan is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, all donations are tax-deductible.

A few additional notes:

• The top 10 local fundraising teams for the Sacramento event as of Monday, March 17, 9am will get have their team name printed on the back of the official PurpleStride t-shirt.  Let's see if we can hit the Top 10!!

• The PurpleStride website and FAQs are a bit clunky and could use some improvement (i.e. there are some broken links, the navigation is not very intuitive (in my opinion)), etc).  Apologies for any frustrations, and please have some patience since they're a non-profit organization.
• A few PanCan website quirks have been communicated to me from family and friends:
  
• If you register as a Team Member, there is a 30-60 minute delay before the website shows you in the Team Members listing.
• The website displays Team Members by First Name alphabetically, and only displays seven Team Members at a time. You have to click the teeny-tiny feint-Orange arrows underneath the Team Member list to scroll through all Team Members.
• The Donation wizard is prone to slow response time and/or freezes. This might be due to heavy transaction volume, or just may be inherent to the website.

Important Links:

• My "David Loh's Low-Gravity-Day" team page (i.e., this page): http://support.pancan.org/goto/Team_David_Lohs_Low-Gravity-Day_Sacto
• Sacramento PurpleStride: https://secure.pancan.org/site/SPageServer/?pagename=purplestride_event_details&fr_id=2975