15 YEARS

In early May 2010, Dennis was having digestive and back pain and his pcp sent him for testing.  I remember my friend, Alex reassuring me that the results were not going to come back with pancreatic cancer.  Dennis was young, healthy and had no family history.  Sadly, pancreatic cancer knows no bounds.  The survival rate was a mere 6% so that was the sad reality we were facing.  

As I write this today, I am angry, upset and very concerned.  Federal funding for pancreatic cancer research has been halted.  Roughly 80% of pancreatic cancer research was funded by the federal government.  This development is going to take us back decades when hardly any funding was dedicated to the disease and the survival rate was lower than 6% . 

Recently, one of our friends asked if Dennis was considered cured since he will be a 15 years survivor. With pancreatic cancer, you are never cured without a risk of recurrence. He still has to go for an annual screening as recurrence is very common in pancreatic cancer even at 15, 20 or more years. It will always be a dark cloud that follows us throughout our lives. The most difficult thing to digest is that after 15 years, the chances of survival are still abysmally low at only 13%. Who would ever want to take those odds in any situation, especially when fighting such a nasty disease?

After PurpleStride this year, we will be celebrating Dennis’ 15 years as a survivor and would love for you to join us!  Please consider joining our team and coming to PurpleStride to meet our purple family and feel the love and passion that they have even through all that they have endured.

Please join us this year and help us celebrate Dennis’ 15 year Survivaversary on Saturday, April 26 at Schenley Plaza.

Sending many hugs and much love,   Kathy and Dennis