Pancreatic Cancer Cure Foundation

Pancreatic Cancer Cure Foundation’s mission is to raise money and distribute funding primarily towards pancreatic cancer research and compassionate care initiatives, and to a lesser extent, awareness and advocacy efforts.

Our story, the PCCF story, starts with Amy (Cygan) Spier being diagnosed with Stage 2 Adenocarcinoma of the pancreas at age 49. It was shared later that after hearing her diagnosis and listening to an honest and sobering prognosis including the current five-year mortality rate (which at that time was only 6%), Amy thought for a moment and then reached out to shake her doctors hand as if to introduce herself. She did in fact, do just that, saying something along the lines of “Hello, I’m Amy Spier, and I’m going to be one of those 6%”. And thus her fight began.

With her team at Jefferson/Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Amy fought hard and fought well. Her whole team did. She had numerous surgeries, including the Whipple procedure which she was fortunate to be a candidate. She had multiple rounds of chemo, radiation, therapies, diets, medications and countless visits to doctors and specialists. She had her ups and she had her downs. Setbacks and advances. Hope and despair. Periods of pain and nausea and periods where she felt amazingly good. Thanks to her medical team at Jefferson, she was able to enjoy a surprisingly high quality of life during the years that followed. Sadly, on November 29th, 2014, Amy lost her 3-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

Amy was part of a very large family; she was one of 11 children. So when the family decided they wanted to hold some sort of event to raise money for research, there were plenty to share the load.

Actually, Amy was still battling the disease when we started planning our first Amy’s Ride/Run/Walk event and was aware of the plans being made. She passed before the event was held in May of 2015 and was not able to see how the event grew and how generous and broad the community support was. Inspired by the success of the first event, the family decided to do it again the following year, this time adding a 5k run to the day. After the second year, it was evident that our hearts were bound to the cause. The family made the unanimous decision to continue to support the fight for pancreatic research and care, and formed the non-profit, the Pancreatic Cancer Cure Foundation, Inc. to honor Amy’s courage and resolve, while also raising capital and awareness for the shockingly underfunded research programs for pancreatic cancer.