Step It Up! against pancreatic cancer

ROCHESTER, NY (WROC-TV) – Every step is making a difference!

That’s the message from the Pancreatic Cancer Association of Western New York, which will host its annual “Step It Up! Cure Pancreatic Cancer Indoor 5K & Family Fun Day” Saturday, November 17 from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. inside the RIT Gordon Field House.

Mary Ellen Smith, the Executive Director of the Pancreatic Cancer Association of WNY, and Bruce Duff, the Step It Up! Honorary Walk Chair, discussed the event and the fight against the disease Monday during News 8 at Noon.

“We have it packed-filled with activities for the kids,” said Smith. “It’s really more about making it a fun and hopeful event so families can kind of put aside the challenges they’re facing if they have a loved-one with pancreatic cancer, and support a cure. We have a bounce house, we have activities and games. For the adults, if you walked a little too much, you can get a massage as well. And this year we have a special guest visitor coming a little early making a surprise visit. Santa will be there. Shhh! Don’t tell the kids. So, come with your kids and do that quick, early visit with Santa.”

The fight against pancreatic cancer is personal for both Smith, who lost her mother to the disease in 2009, and Duff, who lost his wife Jody in 2013. “She was fortunately eligible for the Whipple procedure, which not many people are,” said Duff. “Only twenty percent of people can actually have that surgery, because of health and all that other stuff. I think that was one of the reasons, because we caught it early, that she had another four and a half years. She was a survivor.”

The fact that there’s no effective screening method for pancreatic cancer is part of why it’s so deadly. “It doesn’t have any early detection methods, like breast cancer and colon cancer, and that’s the challenge,” Smith said. “But what we want people to be aware of is know your risk factors in your family history as well as the symptoms so that when it progresses and it’s not getting better – you know your body – just as the questions to your doctor. Just advocate a little bit stronger for yourself and if you’re educated and informed you can better do that.”

And there is no doubt the steps taken at Step It Up, and the money raised, are making a difference. “They’re helping tremendously,” said Smith. “So you know those $5, and $20 and $30 donations are really making an impact. We support local research. It all stays here. And we have gone, nationwide, in the last nine years from 3 percent five year survival rate to a 9 percent survival rate – small steps, but huge in the world of pancreatic cancer and we’re just going higher with more research.”

Duff added, “What we are trying to do is get money, more money to more research because in order to find the solution to the pancreatic cancer you need doctors, researchers, scientists. You need the tools and everything else. But in order to have those, you’ve got to have the funds. So that’s what’s driving us now, is to get as much money to these folks so they can do their job.”

And that’s where we all can play at part. To register yourself or a team for Step It Up, and for more information, visit pcawny.org.