Efforts to bring attention to pancreatic cancer are stepped up every November during Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.
Progress is “desperately needed in the fight against pancreatic cancer,” said Jill Rothstein of Freehold Township, who lost her father to the disease in 2008.
Many towns across New Jersey have joined the worldwide effort and have passed a proclamation declaring Nov. 13 “World Pancreatic Cancer Day.”
Governing bodies in Freehold Township, Freehold Borough, Colts Neck, Howell, Manalapan, Marlboro and Wall Township, and the Monmouth County freeholders, will join in passing a proclamation dedicating Nov. 13 to pancreatic cancer awareness, Rothstein said.
Officials in Monroe Township in neighboring Middlesex County will take the same action.
The proclamation states in part that in 2015 an estimated 48,960 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the United States and 40,560 people will die from the disease. In New Jersey, approximately 1,560 deaths from the disease will occur in 2015.
Pancreatic cancer, which is one of the deadliest cancers, is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States and is projected to become the second leading cause of cancer death by 2020, according to the proclamation.
Pancreatic cancer is the only major cancer with a five-year relative survival rate in the single digits (7 percent).
When symptoms of pancreatic cancer present themselves, it is generally in the late stages of the disease, and 73 percent of pancreatic cancer patients die within the first year of their diagnosis, while 93 percent of pancreatic cancer patients die within the first five years of their diagnosis.
“It is shocking that there is not a loud public outcry demanding more funding to discover early detection tools and a cure,” Rothstein said.
PurpleStride New Jersey, a 5-kilometer run and family friendly walk, will take place at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 8 at the Mack-Cali Business Campus, 1 Campus Drive, Parsippany. Registration will begin at 7:30 a.m. and the opening ceremony will take place at 9 a.m.
PurpleStride events raise awareness about the critical mission of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and give people the opportunity to help make strides toward a better future, according to the PurpleStride website. The events contribute millions of dollars toward the mission to advance research, support patients and create hope, the website states.
“My wish is that momentum builds each November, making it more and more politically correct for stores to sponsor awareness or fundraising events; the post office to decorate with purple balloons; and supermarkets to ask customers to donate just as they do for other cancers,” Rothstein said.
For general event information, contact [email protected] or visit the website www.purplestride.org.