More than 67,000 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year. There is no standard test to diagnose it, and symptoms can often be vague and overlooked.
Later this month, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) is hosting a special fundraising walk called Purplestride.
Rose Black, of St. Clair Shores, was actually on stage behind me during the 2023 Purplestride walk in Detroit.
See the full story in the video below
"You're the double survivor. What does your t-shirt say?" I asked Black.
"It says double survivor, and PanCAN made it for me several years ago. [I] wear it often," she said.
Black is a two-time pancreatic cancer survivor. She had her first surgery in 2009.
"What were the first symptoms you noticed?" I asked.
"I had a bloating in my stomach, and I was starting to lose weight," she said.
Her doctor dismissed the symptoms a couple of times until she finally insisted on a CT scan, which found the tumor.
“What a difficult summer that must have been for you," I said.
"It was. It was nerve-racking because at that time, pancreatic cancer meant a death sentence to most people," she said.
She and her husband, Ron, began volunteering with PanCAN in 2011, running the survivors' table at Purplestride each April and lobbying lawmakers to do more to fight.
The cancer came back in 2016. She treated it with chemo and a second surgery.
"An important part of this is to be able to share your story and realize that you're not alone out there," Black.
"Our mission is always to increase the five-year survival rate," Renee Clearman, the chair of Purplestride, said.
Her mother was diagnosed with the disease in 2016. Her mom passed away after courageously fighting it in January 2018. Clearman has been working with PanCAN ever since.
"What is the one message you want people to remember?" I asked.
"I've met and seen many survivors with many different stories, and the one common theme on those that really keep going and fighting is just that they're positive, they're advocating, they're looking for trials, they are looking for options, and so really just fight for yourself," she said.
"When you look at the 13%, five-year survival rate and your journey, what message do you want to tell people out there?" I asked.
"Sometimes you have to be your own advocate," Black said.
"Had you not kept going back to your doctor, you never would have found the tumor," I said.
'That's correct. And so, I kept after him and finally we found it," she said.
You can register and walk with Black and others in this year's Purplestride Michigan event. It's happening on Saturday, April 25 at Milliken State Park in Detroit. You can register here.
