The Path I walked
We started working on the idea that would become the Walking with Jane seven years ago this month. It was supposed to be nothing more than a Relay for Life team—the kind of thing Jane and I had hoped to do to help others after we retired that June. But Jane was dead—felled two months earlier by a cancer even her doctor had never heard of—and I was barely emerging from the shock of burying the greatest love of my life a month after her 56th birthday.
For seven years I mourned that loss. I can’t explain what happened December 10, 2017. I know I cried a lot. But something was different when I awoke the next day. I still hurt—I expect I always will—but the pain was muted—not as biting, somehow. She does not haunt my every waking moment, my every action, as she had for so long. I felt my brain begin to work again the way it once had.
Help creates knowledge
The time of mourning may have ended, but not the battle against the cancer that destroyed our dreams. That battle continues until it is dead or I can no longer carry on that fight.
And, with your help and support, we have made a difference. The money Walking with Jane has raised has provided the seed money to research NET cancer’s DNA, RNA and the microenvironment that surrounds the tumors. The RNA research may lead to a universal screening test for all cancers—not just NET cancer. We’ve helped create a new NET cancer model that lets scientists understand how the cancer works. And we’ve inspired others to step up in major ways to help fund all those studies and others that may lead to a cure.
Help creates trials
A year ago trials, inspired by some of that research, led to FDA approval of telotristat etiprate. The drug is not a cure, but it does slow the disease down while alleviating symptoms for some patients. Trials for a new therapy, CAR-T, that trains the body’s own immune system to fight NET cancers, will begin later this spring.
But the war against NET cancer is far from over. We’ve gone from diagnosing 10,500 cases a year in the US in 2010 to 22,000 cases a year today. We’ve gone from 105,000 people living with a NET cancer diagnosis in 2010, to over 171,000 today. Last month I read a paper that indicates four percent of all cancers have NET cancer features that complicate curing them.
Help fight any way you can
And the numbers keep growing. NET cancer is now the second most prevalent form of gastrointestinal cancer—trailing only colon cancer. It is not as immediately deadly as colon cancer or pancreatic cancer, but it is a killer, nonetheless—and one without a cure.
This summer, I’ll get on a bike for part of the Pan Mass Challenge. This fall, I’ll take on the Boston Marathon course for the eighth time. With every mile of each, I’ll raise money and awareness for NET cancer research. I know what patients and their families face if we don’t keep moving forward—and I’m determined not to let that happen.
So here I am, hat in hand, asking you for your help. NET cancer killed Jane. Every day, it kills patients I have met on this journey. It won’t let go of me—and I won’t let go of it until one of us is dead.
Some other reasons to help
