Collaborating with the Lustgarten Foundation
Since my Whipple surgery in 2015, I have been an active donor to the Lustgarten Foundation, and encouraged many of my family members, friends, and work colleagues to contribute as well. Team Joel was formed in 2016, and continues to this day.
In 2016, my team planned to participate in the annual Lustgarten Foundation’s Long Island Pancreatic Cancer Research Walk. We were all psyched up and ready, and we even had Team Joel T-shirts printed. Then, on the weekend of the walk, there was a terrible storm. It knocked over the tents that were put up, and caused the organization to cancel the walk. We were disappointed, but understood that our safety came first—especially for my PC cohort. On the bright side, we raised a lot of money.
In 2017 and 2018, I did not feel up to walking, so we donated, but stayed home. This meant I was going into the October 2019 walk with a zero for three record in actually walking. Thankfully, the 2019 walk had a much different outcome—with one big “but.”
For 2019, Team Joel grew substantially. We had more people donate than in previous years. AND we had a large contingent attend the walk: wife Linda; daughters Jennifer and Stacey; sons-in-law Phil and Adam; Phil’s brother Greg and his wife Kristen; and friends Bob and Janine, Marc and Gail, Amy, and Jenny. There were 14 of us in all, including me.
Although a huge crowd came for the walk, there were only a couple of dozen survivors who could attend. Somehow, I was asked to represent the survivors in the ribbon cutting ceremony, my wife and daughters stood by the big American flag during the national anthem, and I got interviewed by the local TV station. What an honor for all four of us.
The Lustgarten walk itself was great. It was awesome to become part of another community, and to bond with family and friends. The big “but” was only a big but to me. Because of a rapidly deteriorating left knee, I could walk just one mile, instead of the three miles I intended. To do the one mile, I grit my teeth and willed myself to complete that, limping all the way. [My January 2020 knee replacement surgery was covered in the preceding chapter.]
After the walk, most of Team Joel joined us for lunch at a nearby diner. Another hard-to-believe-anecdote: When we sat down to eat, everyone at our table yelled at me to look at the TV on the counter. There I was being interviewed. When others in the diner recognized me, a huge cheer went up. That made me feel fantastic, despite my knee.
In late July 2019, shortly before the annual walk, my story appeared on the Let’s Win! Pancreatic Cancer Web site (https://letswinpc.org). The purpose of that site is to “enable doctors, scientists, and patients to share fast-breaking information on potentially life- saving pancreatic cancer treatments and clinical trials. We want to inform, enable, and educate patients and caregivers, providing easy-to-understand, actionable information.” Let’s Win! Is an affiliate of the Lustgarten Foundation.
Since the 2019 walk, and carrying over into today, the Lustgarten Foundation and I have looked for more ways in which we may collaborate. The special 2020 Lustgarten Edition of Surviving Cancer and Embracing Life: My Personal Story represents one such joint collaboration.
Thank you to all the fine people at the Lustgarten Foundation for your cooperation and efforts. I look forward to collaborating further as we move forward into the future.
Team Joel will be ready for the virtual walk this October, as an in-person walk is not something many of us can risk during the pandemic. We will fundraise as best we can. At Team Joel, we are determined not to have a letdown.
To the other patients and their families facing pancreatic cancer, we send our best wishes.
Live life every day!!
And GO
Following are two pictures from the 2019 Lustgarten Foundation walk.
Team Joel
October 6, 2019
All FOURTEEN OF US
Getting Ready for the Ribbon Cutting
October 6, 2019
Honoring PC Survivors
