Nancy Highland & Marty Dillon
I am participating in Lustgarten's the Walk
for Pancreatic
Cancer Research again this year. I walk in remembrance of two people:
The light of my life,
my wife
My smiling, funny friend
Marty Dillon
Both were taken from
us by this awful disease and both left behind broken hearted families.
It is my sincere
wish that this cancer can be at least detected early if not eradicated. As I
experienced, a detection test, such as the PSA blood test that found my
Prostate cancer, would be a God send. Pancreatic cancer has a survival rate
directly tied to when it is discovered – Early detection has a good rate but
late detection has a very poor rate. Obviously, the ultimate goal is treatment
that prevents/eliminates the cancer. I pray for the day when this comes to be.
However, this year I can report that there has some been progress! Not a cure yet, but treatments that can
sometimes shrink the tumors and sometimes prevent reoccurrence post surgery. In
addition, a blood test that can sometimes detect pancreatic cancer is reported.
While this is
encouraging news, the journey is not over.
Financial support
for this research is paramount to maintain progress. In these times of
uncertain agency funding, our contributions are even more important.
As Winston Churchill
once said, “Now
this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is,
perhaps, the end of the beginning.” I pray this is true.
Come
walk with us for
