Cleveland PurpleStride Chair Lori Kershner spoke with Community Engagement Senior Specialist Paula Mukherjee about favorite PanCAN PurpleStride moments and her journey to becoming a PanCAN volunteer leader. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.


Paula: What is your connection to pancreatic cancer?

Lori: I decided to take up running in 2017 at the age of 34. I was doing great and improving my pace, but then I plateaued and started backtracking.

One day I was running on my treadmill and I couldn’t complete my second mile because I was really out of breath. I quit, laid down on the couch and happened to look down at my belly. I saw a big protrusion.

My husband, a nurse by training, said that we had to go to the emergency room.

After getting an ultrasound, I was told that I had a very large mass. It was an eight-pound cyst on my pancreas. The cyst was drained, and the doctor told me that I had damage to my pancreas and spleen.

I was scheduled for surgery, and one month later I had part of my pancreas and my spleen removed.

I went into the surgery just thinking that I had a weird growth that needed to be removed. I felt like I was in an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” because interns kept coming in to see me; it was a strange, special case.

It sounds naïve, but I didn’t even think about cancer and none of the doctors mentioned it to me.

Paula: When did you find out you had cancer?

Lori: After surgery, I went to the surgeon to get my stitches removed. He told me that I had stage I pancreatic cancer and referred me to an oncologist. That was when I thought, “What the…??”

I had a different type of pancreatic cancer than most people with pancreatic cancer do – mucinous cystic neoplasm with an invasive adenocarcinoma. It’s rare and mostly affects women.

I met the wonderful oncologist and two weeks later, I began a six-month round of chemo. I didn’t even have time to worry about what I was going to do because I went straight to treatment.

At my first appointment with my oncologist, he asked, “How much did you Google about pancreatic cancer?” I was honest with him: I didn’t Google anything after realizing that when you tell people that something is wrong with your pancreas, the expression on their face changes. They feel so sorry for you and treat you like you’ve been given a death sentence.

As a defense mechanism, I learned immediately not to tell people I had pancreatic cancer. I would say, “They found a mass on my pancreas.” I didn’t want people to think that I had been given a terminal diagnosis, and I didn’t want to be in that headspace while going through treatment.

I’m very lucky I had a weird growth that led to my diagnosis at stage I. There are many patients who have to start with chemo to try to get their tumor down to a size where it can be removed, but the opposite was true for me.

I did go through the same hurdles that other people with pancreatic cancer go through, but I was able to have a different mindset because I knew that I was most likely going to be okay.

Paula: We want every patient with pancreatic cancer to have this kind of story. You’re an eight-year survivor!

Lori: For five years after my diagnosis, I had check-ins with my oncologist every six months: labs, scans, everything. When he met with me, he always had good news to share, whereas most of the day he gave difficult news.

I know I am very, very lucky. There are not as many people like me who can talk about pancreatic cancer from the survivor perspective as there should be.

When people learn my story, they see how different outcomes can be when there’s an early diagnosis. I had a second kid after this! He’s now five years old. I think my story gives people hope, and I like being a person who can give others even a bit of hope.

Paula: How did you get started as a PanCAN volunteer?

Lori: I was laid off from a job and decided to start volunteering and finding joy through things other than work. In 2023, my husband sent me a post about a volunteer opportunity with the PanCAN affiliate in Cleveland.

When I reached out, it happened to be right around the time of PanCAN PurpleStride Cleveland. The PanCAN staff partner asked if I could share my story at the event because I’m a survivor. I agreed, and that was the first PanCAN event I attended.

After event day, I decided to join as PurpleStride chair! I’ve been able to turn a negative experience into a positive one. It was a difficult thing that brought me to this joy.

Paula: How was your experience as a PurpleStride speaker?

Lori: It was great! I'm in sales, so I talk in front of groups of people constantly. It was of course much harder to talk about myself than a product, but it was a great experience.

Paula: How has the experience working with the Cleveland community as PurpleStride chair been so far?

Lori: It’s been a real pleasure to get more folks interested in volunteering. Last year there was a lot of volunteer turnover due to different life circumstances – people starting school, moving out of the area – so I’m meeting people in the community and recruiting new volunteers.

I also enjoy calling and texting current or previous PurpleStride participants. Many times, they ask me about my relationship to the cause, I share that I’m a survivor, and they want to know my story. It brings them some hope or maybe reminds them that PanCAN helped their loved one. It’s really nice to connect.

Another part I enjoy is talking with healthcare professionals – nurses, surgeons, heads of university hospitals, the folks who do this day in and day out. PurpleStride is just one of their many events, but they always come in with high energy and support. My oncologist’s hospital has a PurpleStride team and it’s so nice to bump into them at the event.

Paula: What’s your favorite PurpleStride memory?

Lori: I like seeing the established teams that look forward to catching up and being together. There are teams with members who come in from out of town to attend this event.

Then there are new teams that are attending for the first time. It's sweet to see established teams welcome new teams. Newbies are always welcomed into the PanCAN family.

We have a good foundation, and I'm excited to keep seeing the event grow. We were super excited to hit our event goal this year! I am really proud of that. Even our emcee was pumped because she got to say, “We hit our goal!” from stage.

Paula: What are your hopes for future PurpleStride events?

Lori: I would like to get participants more engaged on event day.

Our venue is the Cleveland Zoo. Our event is different than many others because we don't have a closing ceremony. Once participants start the walk, they can stay in the zoo all day, which is really fun.

We have to take down the event village before the zoo opens to the public, so there’s no closing ceremony where people gather one last time. I want to figure out how to add more of that community element at the beginning. This year, we incorporated games like cornhole for the first time. I’d like to recruit more volunteers to run these kinds of activities.

Paula: What keeps you busy outside of PanCAN?

Lori: My husband, Kyle, and I have two boys. Kent is 13 years old and my little one, Reed, is 5.

I am in tech sales. I travel quite a bit and work with the public sector.

I am involved in the arts. I am a member of the Arts Commission in my city, North Olmsted. My husband's a children's book illustrator, and we have created a couple books together that will be released in a few years.

I also am a mentor for a first-generation college student through a local nonprofit, College Now Greater Cleveland. It has brought me so much joy to be her mentor.

Paula: Thank you for everything you’re doing for PanCAN!

Please feel free to contact Lori Kershner (lkershner@pancanvolunteer.org) or Paula Mukherjee (pmukherjee@pancan.org) with any questions.