November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, and on World Pancreatic Cancer Day (November 16), Western New York will shine purple.
Seven locations, including Buffalo City Hall, Peace Bridge, and Niagara Falls will all be lit up purple, the color for pancreatic cancer.
But one organization is spreading awareness year-round here in Western New York. Lynne Jakubowski heads the WNY affiliate of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. The network aims to educate people about signs and symptoms of pancreatic cancer, raise funds for research, and provide support for patients and families fighting the disease.
For Jakubowski, this issue hits close to home. In the span of three years, she lost both her husband and brother to pancreatic cancer.
To her, founding the local Pancreatic Cancer Action Network branch brought a sense of healing.
"I think it's given me a positive way to channel the grief and the devastation," Jakubowski said. "It's a way to take that and channel it into something that would be promising and hopeful and something that I know my husband and my brother would be thrilled that we're doing."
For more information on Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month and signs and symptoms of the disease, visit the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network's official site.
