Can Purple Be the Color of Hope?

I wish purple could be the color of hope.

Maybe there is hope, given the good news recently released about the health of beloved Jeopardy host Alex Trebek. 

He is responding well to treatment for his stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

But the news isn't all good.  Pancreatic cancer has struck again.  This time, it took a talented woman I did not know personally, but others I know (through blogging) knew and loved her.

In the past several months, pancreatic cancer has taken the mother of someone I know, and someone I knew of as a great advocate for eldercare issues in our community.  I got to meet her less than a year before her death. 

Alex Trebek gives much of the credit for his cancer shrinking to the millions of people who have been praying and thinking of him.  But prayer is not enough.  We must help ourselves.

Pancreatic cancer, and other "rare" cancers needs to be "brought up to speed".  This cancer needs to have some type of early detection, the way breast cancer and cervical cancer have.  It needs  publicity.  It needs marathons.  All cancers need funding.  It is true that pancreatic cancer is only about 3% of cancer diagnoses in our country.  But isn't it strange that, for its 3% rate, so many of us seem to know someone who has had it.

Yes, having had three relatives die from this cancer (my late aunt was the youngest), makes it personal.  While the survival rates for some cancers have (thankfully) increased, the rates for pancreatic cancer have not.

I do wish recovery for all patients with this dread cancer, whether or not they have extensive support systems.  And I am cautiously optimistic about Trebek, because I also know how quickly good news can turn to bad when it comes to cancer.

I seriously want him to return to Jeopardy for season 36 in September.

So, pretty please....

I want purple (the color symbolizing pancreatic cancer) to be the color of hope.  Besides hopes and prayers, what can we do to make it happen?