·    Howard H. Kayton (z"l) our incredible stepfather, sharp-minded actuary, and mensch;

·    Felice Kurtzman (z"l) a professional nutritionist, wife, mother, sister, aunt and daughter.

·    Howard Pilch (z"l) a pillar of the TBA-LA Community, generous and devoted family man;

·    Ruth Bader Ginsberg (z"l) notoriously needs no introduction;

·    Aretha Franklin nothin' but R.E.S.P.E.C.T. for the Queen of Soul;

·    John Lewis on his stage IV diagnosis, "I have been in some kind of fight – for freedom, equality, basic human rights – for nearly my entire life. I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now."

·    Alex Trebek is in real Double Jeopardy despite his cheerful words.

Pancreatic Cancer claims the lives of ALL patients eventually. It can never define their essence though... Each of the three I listed improved so many lives — with kindness, generosity, selflessness, intelligence, wit and boundless energy!!

THE HARD FACTS: 

• Pancreatic cancer has the worst survival of all common cancers. 1 in 4 people facing a pancreatic cancer diagnosis will die within a month and 3 in 4 within one year. Survival estimates show that less than 7% of people affected 1 will survive for five years.
  
  
• Compared with many other cancers, the combined five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer—the percentage of all patients who are living five years after diagnosis—is very low at just 5 to 10 percent. This is because far more people are diagnosed as stage IV when the disease has metastasized.
  
  
• The incidence of pancreatic cancer is higher in African Americans than in any other racial group in the United States. The age-adjusted incidence rate for Blacks is 15.9 per 100,000 people, while for Whites it is 13.4 per 100,000 people.