While attending the PanCAN Affiliate Forum in Dallas this past October, there was a moment when our forum hosts called on volunteers to stand if they had reached a certain milestone year with PanCAN. Along with the sea of staff and volunteer leaders gathered in the large conference room, I applauded gleefully as individuals stood up with each year called.

When they got to five years, I remained glued to my seat – but with a stinging suspicion that I probably should be standing. It wasn’t until I looked over at my dedicated Senior Community Relationship Manager Addie Vroom, who gave me a reaffirming nod with the sweetest smile, that I realized I was one of the volunteers who had indeed reached their five-year mark volunteering with PanCAN. With a look of disbelief, I quickly stood up and did my signature nervous pageant wave to the crowd.

After I sat back down, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Five years. I couldn’t believe it. When I think back to when my journey with PanCAN began in 2018, I never would have imagined then where I’d be today and how much progress I, along with countless volunteers and staff, would help bring to fruition in the fight against this insidious disease. All I knew then was that I was heartbroken, reeling from the immeasurable loss of my beloved grandmother Martina to pancreatic cancer less than a year prior, and yearning for a way to fill the gaping hole her physical absence had left in my heart.

My solution was simple: I would volunteer and do my best to help save others from the pain too many of us have experienced when robbed of our loved ones by pancreatic cancer. So, I put my head down, got to work, and before I knew it, five years had passed. Reflecting on these five years, volunteering with PanCAN has given me so much more than I could have ever expected.

PanCAN gave me my “Purple fam[ily].” That’s what I affectionately call my Broward-Palm Beach Affiliate chairs and volunteers. A welcome and unexpected twist in my search for mending my broken heart was inheriting this amazing group of individuals. I can’t begin to express the love I have for these people who once were just strangers bonded by tragic circumstances. We have cried ugly tears, laughed, celebrated, and put on some amazing PurpleStride events together. Over time, we’ve morphed into a little purple fam, who understands this mission, grief, and survivor journey in ways that most folks can’t.  

PanCAN gave me my purpose. I’ve always wanted to be of service in this world, something I learned from watching my grandmother Martina give back to so many. I have found that in spades through my volunteering with PanCAN, which I have often expressed is the most meaningful thing I do in my life.

During these five years volunteering, I’ve seen how our collective efforts have helped raise the 5-year survival rate from 9% when my grandmother was diagnosed to 12% today, usher in new clinical trials for patients to have better outcomes, push Congress to approve millions of dollars in critical funds for pancreatic cancer research, provide free resources and support through PanCAN Patient Services to hundreds of thousands of patients and caregivers, and so much more. I’m barely scratching the surface of all the progress PanCAN staff, supporters and my fellow volunteers and I have contributed to. 

PanCAN helped me heal. While nothing will ever truly fill the void of losing my grandmother, I can say with certainty that giving back through my volunteering with PanCAN has helped me heal. I came into this completely devastated and grieving. I felt gutted, but hopeful that maybe I could distract myself from that feeling through volunteer work. However, this became more than a distraction. Volunteering became an opportunity for me to tell my grandmother’s story and her legacy of love and compassion, to cry and bond with others who have experienced the same loss, and to meet and befriend survivors who inspired and reignited so much hope in me.

I’m deeply grateful for that day at the forum and how it served as a welcomed reminder to look back on my volunteer journey. So much has happened and has been accomplished since I accepted my first volunteer role in 2018. Can you imagine the leaps we’ll make in another five?! It’ll be here before we know it and I can’t wait!

So now that a new year is here, I hope you also take time to reflect on your personal volunteer journey and how it has impacted your life and that of those affected by pancreatic cancer. Revisit who you were then and who you are today. Let all those amazing accomplishments and moments in your volunteer path serve as motivation for 2024 and beyond.

If I’ve learned anything from my walk down PanCAN memory lane is that the adage is true: time flies when you’re having fun.