Lisa was a cardiac nurse and the co-founder and Executive Director of Camp del Corazon, an organization that provides a medically-supervised, residential summer camp on Catalina Island for children who are living with heart disease. Her camp name was “Xena – the Warrior Princess”. Although our sister fought valiantly, she lost her life to pancreatic cancer on May 10, 2019. Lisa touched so many lives; her selfless acts of love, kindness, and compassion have had a massive ripple effect and her legacy and camp lives on. Hundreds of children are able attend her camp each year through her vision and the tireless direction of her daughter, Chrissie. Lisa’s life work has left the world a better place.

This is a cause that she championed in her life and our hope now is that her death will help lead to a better understanding of pancreatic cancer and a path of discovery. Far too little attention is paid to pancreatic cancer, despite the fact that it now claims more lives in the US than breast cancer, liver cancer, kidney cancer, ovarian cancer, lymphoma or leukemia, because, unlike other cancers, it doesn’t produce an army of survivors. Meanwhile, the incidence of pancreatic cancer has doubled in just two decades. More than 57,000 people in the US will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year and more than 47,000 (nearly 130 per day) will die from it.

Only research will change the direction of pancreatic cancer and the proceeds of the LA Cancer Challenge are funneled directly to pancreatic cancer researchers in the form of seed grants. You can see where the money goes. Here’s where it went last year: http://pancreatic.org/research/seed-grant-program/seed-grant-recipients/. We need to spur the pace of research and sow seeds of innovation to develop methods of early detection and more and more-effective therapies, to extend quality of life and, ultimately, to develop a cure for pancreatic cancer. This is the most precious gift we can give to our beloved Warrior Princess, to others who have been lost, and to those who are currently battling pancreatic cancer.

Many of our strengths and weaknesses have been recognized from the experience of our sister’s illness and death and our family misses her dearly. She had so much more to give and to teach the world. Dearest sister, if only you could have stayed.

The LA Cancer Challenge is a virtual event this year, due to COVID, so you can participate however you choose wherever you choose. Please join our team or sponsor us and please think of us and our Warrior Princess on October 25th.

“Because someone we love is in heaven, there is a little bit of heaven in our hearts.”