NIPANC supporter Claire Barnes who lost her best friend of 17-years Aundrea to pancreatic cancer talks about the courage with which her friend faced this deadly disease. When you lose your best friend to Pancreatic Cancer Before July 2016 I wasn’t really aware of Pancreatic Cancer. My knowledge only went as far as “oh that’s what Patrick Swayze died from this”. Never in a million years did I think I would watch my best friend of 17 years suffer from this brutal disease and ta

Olive Buckley was born in Dublin in 1961 but later moved to Belfast where she worked in the Ulster Hospital as a Biomedical Scientist. Olive was also a dedicated trade union activist before becoming Unite the Union’s Regional Officer - looking after those working in the health sector across Northern Ireland. Olive was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in April 2015 and passed away in September 2016, just over 5 years ago. In an obituary Unite the Union described Olive as “an a

Powerful personal testimony from NIPANC Board Member and Senior Civil Servant Brian Grzymek about his wife Caroline’s pancreatic journey. Caroline passed away almost ten years ago. Their story highlights the need for improved understanding of the symptoms of pancreatic cancer among the medical profession as well as members of the public. Out of the blue That is how pancreatic cancer hits you! One day you are enjoying family life, planning for holidays and the future, the ne

Kerry Irvine lost her husband Noel to pancreatic cancer in November 2011. He was only 54. In this short blog and accompanying video, Kerry – a founding member of NIPANC - tells her pancreatic cancer story and the impact it had on her family. It's almost 10 years, which is 120 months, 522 weeks, 3652 days, 87600 hours, 5258880 minutes 315567360 seconds since Noel took his last breath. Was he old? No, he was a young 54-year-old man. Did he have an accident? No, he had pancreati

Susan Cooke - a founding member of NIPANC - lost her husband Colin (45) to pancreatic cancer in February 2013 just eleven weeks after he was diagnosed. In this short blog and accompanying video, Susan tells her pancreatic cancer story and the impact it had on her family. The 26th November 2012 is a day that is hard to forget. It was the day my husband Colin was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer in the middle of a busy A&E unit. Colin had attended the same unit just 2 weeks pre

Throughout World Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, NIPANC is raising awareness of this deadly disease in its #TimeMatters campaign to encourage the public to become more aware of the signs and symptoms of the disease and the need for early diagnosis, treatment and research. To begin week two of the campaign, we have invited one of NI’s leading surgeons, Mark A Taylor CStJ PhD FRCSI FRCS(Eng) FRCS(Gen Surg) to contribute a blog on the ‘time really does matter’ theme to radica

Today, on the first day of designated World Pancreatic Cancer Month, NIPANC will be launching its #TimeMatters Iconic Clocks campaign to promote the importance of understanding the symptoms of Pancreatic Cancer, the urgent need for early diagnosis, treatment, and more research into this deadly disease. Here, our Chairperson, Ivan McMinn explains more about the campaign and talks about his own battle against pancreatic cancer which he has survived for ten years. We’ve come up

The Charity Ballot at the 29th Annual NI Travel & Tourism Awards was in support of NIPANC From the N.I. Travel News website "We are delighted to announce that at this years Northern Ireland Travel & Tourism Awards in association with Blue Insurance, a massive £2,500.00 was raised for NIPANC. Our industry colleagues showed great support for this years nominated charity, all donations made on the night go direct to the local organisation in support of the admirable work they do

by Karen Martin Mum and I were the best of friends. Every Saturday was our shopping day, visiting different towns and villages locally. Checking out the best coffee shops and latest fashion. Mum was a vibrant, sassy, immaculately dressed lady. Loved to socialise and joined her group of friends daily for a chat and coffee. We were a very small family with little connections mum, dad my brother David myself and husband Reuben. Her family were her world, tragically we lost David

NIPANC is a member of the World Pancreatic Cancer Coalition (WPCC). The WPCC is a collective of pancreatic cancer patient advocacy organizations from around the world which came together in 2013 to discuss working together to raise global pancreatic cancer awareness and work collaboratively to support each other’s efforts. The Coalition swiftly moved to action with the launch of the inaugural World Pancreatic Cancer Day in 2014. The next World Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Day

There has been some exciting news over the past few days that could mean that early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is possible. Firstly, Korean company JW Bioscience announced that it had signed a licensing accord with Swedish company Immunovia for pancreatic cancer biomarkers. Immunovia AB was founded in 2007 by researchers from the Department of Immunotechnology at Lund University and CREATE Health (the Centre for Translational Cancer Research) in Lund, Sweden and is “focus

With today’s media report of a pancreatic cancer surgery patient having a life-saving operation repeatedly postponed due to the Covid pressures Ivan McMinn, Chairperson of Northern Ireland Pancreatic Cancer (NIPANC), called for immediate priority to be given to urgent cancer operations. Speaking as someone whose own life had been saved by pancreatic cancer surgery in 2011, Ivan said: “I well appreciate the importance of providing hospital care for seriously ill Covid patients

A year ago, Jamie Dornan sat down to talk via Zoom with Philip Reynolds about his career, his upbringing in Northern Ireland, and his involvement as Patron of NIPANC. Sadly, since then Jamie’s father Professor Jim Dornan has passed away but we thought it was worth revisiting the interview where Jamie explained why he accepted the role of Patron, the importance of raising awareness of pancreatic cancer, and why fundraising to research the disease is so important. If you want t

Pancreatic cancer is the UK’s 5th biggest cancer killer yet a recent survey shows that 95% of people in the UK don’t know a lot about the symptoms of pancreatic cancer; indeed almost half of patients have never heard of pancreatic cancer before their own diagnosis. Awareness of pancreatic cancer in Northern Ireland is the lowest in the whole of the UK, where only 2% of the population know a lot about the disease – 65% have heard of pancreatic cancer but know nothing about the

Ivan McMinn, Chairperson of NIPANC, has been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours and awarded an MBE for services to charity and the community in Northern Ireland. Ivan said last night “I was totally shocked when I received the notification of my award but am both honoured and humbled to accept it. As someone who realises every single day how fortunate I am to have survived Pancreatic Cancer, it is such a pleasure to be able to use my time to help various charities and

Firstly, thank you for supporting our work. NIPANC needs your help to help us: Increase public understanding of pancreatic cancer Promote awareness of the cancer’s signs and symptoms by both medical professionals and members of the public Fund vital research Support patients and their families Organising a fundraiser for us can be done in many different ways. You can take up a challenge such as a marathon, a fitness challenge, or a skydive. Maybe you'd prefer to arrange a cof

We are delighted that the family of friends of the late Maurice McAnulty have been raising funds for NIPANC in his memory. Maurice’s daughter Lorraine contacted us a few weeks ago to share her story with us: “My name is Lorraine Coulter last year my wonderful father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the age of 70 following attendance at A&E for abdominal pain. Tragically daddy passed away on 29th May 2020 leaving us devastated as a family. As we are approaching the anni

NIPANC has partnered with MuchLoved to help bereaved people to remember and commemorate their loved ones online in a beautiful and personalised way. MuchLoved tribute pages are designed to give bereaved families a safe, meaningful space to remember their loved ones, to bring them comfort at the most difficult of times, and into the future. Each page allows a family to upload photos, music and videos, along with messages of remembrance and memories. Pages can be totally custom

Rachel Hadden is a Hepatobiliary Nurse in the Belfast Trust We asked Rachel to share her advice for patients facing surgery for pancreatic cancer. Surgery for Pancreatic Cancer is complicated and major surgery. However, if you are suitable for surgery it is the most effective treatment and will help you live longer. The fitter you are for surgery, the better it will be. You may be suitable for the pre-hepatobilitation programme where you will meet the surgeon, the anaesthetis

Karen Jennings is one of the HPB nurses based in the Belfast Trust, covering the 3 sites of the Mater, the Royal, and the City Hospital and she looks after patients who have cancer in their pancreas area. We asked Karen to share her advice for patients undergoing chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer, and their friends and family. For lots of patients who have had a diagnosis of cancer when they hear the words chemotherapy it brings great fear to them, so, I’m going to discuss s