WITH April being Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, everyone is encouraged to wear their pyjamas to work, school or just in the community. The staff of Belmore Court and Motel wore their PJs to help say goodnight to pancreatic cancer.
Shelley Bass, who is a kitchen assistant in the Belmore Court lost her husband to pancreatic cancer in January, only 20 days after his diagnosis.
“I lost my husband Ray on 30 January to pancreatic cancer, he only lasted 20 days from diagnosis to when he passed which when I looked in to, whilst it is shocking, it is not unusual as 50% of people in the UK who get diagnosed with pancreatic cancer die within three months,” she said. “The survival rate of over five years is only seven percent so it is 93% fatality with pancreatic cancer. It’s a massively under funded cancer because its difficult for GP’s to diagnose.”
Twenty-nine people are newly diagnosed every day in the UK says Shelly who is fundraising for a charity called Pancreatic Cancer Action.
Pancreatic Cancer Action is helping to fund new diagnostic tools for GP’s including a breath test which hopefully will diagnose people earlier.
“The charity is about saving lives through early diagnosis, the only way of surviving pancreatic cancer is catching it really early and have an operation but most people go to the doctors a number of times and end up in A&E before getting diagnosed,” Shelley said.
“It is the fifth biggest cancer killer in the UK and April is all about pancreatic cancer, one of the things to do to raise money is pyjamas for PANCAN which is dressing up in your PJ’s and going to work.
“I am hoping to raise money through raffles, through guests contributing. I have baked a load of scones, but the main thing is about raising peoples awareness of this killer and getting the symptoms out there,” she added.
Shelley wants to make people aware of the early symptoms of pancreatic cancer.
“There is a whole load of symptoms that people get including, indigestion, upper abdominal pain, pain in eating or loss of appetite, tiredness, unexplained weight loss and the great one is pale and smelly stools and back pain which is the main symptom my husband had,” she said.
“Pancreatic cancer only receives 3.1% of the cancer research fund even though it is the fifth biggest killer and I just want to raise awareness and get the word out there.”
To donate to this cause you can use the link to Shelleys just giving page https://pancreaticcanceraction.enthuse.com/pf/shelley-bass.
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