Diegetic Sight & Sound

Pancreatic Cancer Action Network

It’s hard to care about every cancer, disease, or disorder out there without a personal reason to fight it. There are some that are discussed more than others: in October people participate in National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, you’ve seen the pink ribbons, go to the baseball games, etc.; we hear about skin cancer and lung cancer all the time when connected to the hazards of UV rays and smoking, respectively. There’s the well known LIVESTRONG foundation — which is an amazing foundation that raises money for cancer research — thanks to the global celebrity of its founder Lance Armstrong. And in recent months, with the help of social media, we’ve started to Blame Drew’s Cancer for anything from the trival and comical, to very serious and heartfelt.

Thankfully support for such causes seems to become sort of — popular, I guess — manifesting into color coded symbols like yellow armbands, pink ribbons, (RED) clothing and whatnot. In fact, I wear a purple wristband for PanCan, but more personally as a reminder of my mother.

I have not spent much time publicly talking about the recent passing of my mother, who I lost to pancreatic cancer on July 9, seven weeks before her 60th birthday. For me personally, social networking sites aren’t the places to do so in depth. I have my friends and family for support and have write notes to her in another place. (This is not to say those who find an outlet such as Tumblr helpful, shouldn’t.)

However, with the news of Patrick Swayze’s passing yesterday, I do want to call your attention to pancreatic cancer and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. PanCan.org raises money and awareness for the cancer that claimed Swayze yesterday after a 20 month battle, and my mother in just two, too short months. With so many diseases and forms of cancer out there it’s a wonder we even know much about any of them and a travesty that we know so little about most of them. Here are some startling statistics about pancreatic cancer:

Median survival from diagnosis is around 3 to 6 months; 5-year survival is less than 5%. With 37,170 cases diagnosed in the United States in 2007, and 33,700 deaths, pancreatic cancer has one of the highest fatality rates of all cancers and is the fourth highest cancer killer in the United States among both men and women. Although it accounts for only 2.5% of new cases, pancreatic cancer is responsible for 6% of cancer deaths each year.

If you follow the link above, you can find out what sort of events are going on in your area and donate your time or money to help support the efforts to fight pancreatic cancer. Last June I went to a vineyard in Napa, CA for a walk and silent auction. Much like with breast cancer, there are also often PanCan nights at sporting events. All you have to due is buy a ticket through the website and a portion of the price supports awareness efforts and research funding.

I don’t expect my mother’s or Patrick Swayze’s passings to affect you on a personal level. But I wanted to let you know that PanCan.org exists; and there is likely a foundation or network dedicated to another cause that you may already have a personal stake in.

So take a look and take part in helping save lives.