Desmond Turner, Nathan and Ellie with their mum Kerry Irvine, Chairman Thomas O’Reilly and Gwendalyn Hall bmcb 20
THE WIFE of a Fermanagh man who died of pancreatic cancer has called for more to be done to tackle the killer disease, which has a very low survival rate due to difficulties diagnosing it.
Kerry Irvine, whose husband Noel passed away in November 2011, said it was a “very poignant and important moment” last Friday when Enniskillen Castle was lit up purple to mark World Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Day.
While the family live in Omagh, Noel grew up in Kesh and was a proud Fermanagh man, and had served for 22 years in the Royal Irish Regiment, making Friday’s illumination of the castle all the more poignant for her. With Noel’s anniversary occurring at the end of November the event was especially emotional for Kerry and her two children.
Kerry started the Action4Noel campaign, under Pancreatic Cancer Action (PCA), last November, and has since raised almost £20,000 with the help of many others, including two young girls who lost their daddy last year and asked for donations to PCA in lieu of presents for their birthdays, as well as selling teddy bears to raise funds. “Noel was probably one of the bravest men people I’ll ever meet. I know if the shoe was on the other foot he would be the same,” she said. “If we can prevent even one family from going through what we went through it won’t make it worth it, but at least we will have done something.”
With a busy year behind her, she and the team are continuing to work tirelessly to raise awareness of the disease, raising funds for research, and education doctors and the public as to the symptoms. Kerry explained the disease is often misdiagnosed as less serious digestive complaints, and said GPs need more training on dealing with it, as well as more research being carried out.
Explaining that only one percent of cancer funding went towards pancreatic cancer research, she said: “There’s an apathy about it. People think, well it’s going to kill you anyway, and are quite defeatist about it. That’s the reason Action4Noel was founded. Yes, it’s difficult to diagnose, but not impossible. It doesn’t have to be a death sentence, there are good news stories out there but they’re not as common as we’d like.”
Kerry said over 50 per cent of diagnoses were made in A&E wards, which “just isn’t good enough.” She also explained that the while survival rates for all cancers had improved, some dramatically, over the past few years, except for pancreatic cancer which hasn’t improved in 40 years. “In 2012 over 200 people were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in Northern Ireland,” she said. “In the same year, 198 people died of it.”
Kerry said there was exciting research being done on behalf of Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund, while just yesterday researchers at Ulster University announced they had made a break through in their research into the disease.
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