Friends brother has just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

[kid]

He is just 29 years old and it has came as a total shock.
They are seeing a cancer specialist next week so I am sure they will find out more then. He is due to start Chemo soon. Not sure of stage or position of the cancer but they did find a spot of cancer on his liver too which makes me think its at a later stage.

I would sure appreciate any success stories or even words of advice that I could pass on to her. I have already done a search on here and have been reading over the stories.

My friend is being very strong and is hoping that her brothers age will go in his favour. I hope so.

Sorry to hear your news. Have you visited cancerbackup yet? It's a reliable site.

I'm sorry to hear this Kid.

Your friend will learn a lot about cancer over the next few months.

Having a friend like you who thinks about her will help I'm sure.

sorry to hear your news, i use www.whatnow.org quite a lot, loads of people there with advice, and forums for types of cancer, hth

thanks SGK.

Unfortunately we have received more bad news regarding another family member but until further tests are done, we don't know what is happening. I will make a note of that website for myself, as soon as test results are available I might need it as we are fairly sure its some form of cancer.

oh that wasn't me, Lisad123 must have used my laptop earlier to send that message. Sorry to hear your news though

My next door neighbour has just been operated on for pancreatic cancer....and is now having chemo. I think, if they offer the op as an option, it is hopeful. But no getting away from the fact that pancreatic cancer is one of the bigger bastard ones.....Hope your friend is one of the lucky ones...

Oh that is awful. Pancreatic is one of the real nasties, and a spot in the liver suggests it has spread, which is never good news.

Your friend will have to look after herself in order to be strong for her brother. Maybe you can help with that side of things?

As far as I know, they haven't offered an operation, they are just going straight for chemo.

My friend and her family are aware that the odds are stacked against them, but are praying that his age will give him a chance. Thats what we are all hoping for.

He is getting married this year after being engaged forever! How sad that they are having to rush it now due to his diagnosis

He has been given 12 months. I am absolutely gutted for all of them

Suggest that they ak about a clinical trial. Drug called Ipilimumab (MX 010 I think) is looking interesting for several types.

If he could get on a trial it might give him a little bit of a chance.

Sorry to hear this

types of cancer I mean.

Several trials Not including the drug I mentioned, but these may be more appropriate.

they said he may be selected to take part in a trial, but there is no guarantee that he will be selected. They are of course hoping he is picked.

Their other option is to get him to USA as they seem to be more advanced with treatment there.
Just keeping our fingers crossed and praying for a miracle tbh.

I remember posting about this last year and thought I should come back and post an update.
Sadly, he lost his battle against cancer and passed away last week.

He managed to live some of his dreams, but still died far too young. His family are now trying to come to terms with their loss.

I don't know whether to talk to my friend or not. I guess the best thing would be to wait until she brings it up rather than push her for anything.

I really do feel sorry for his whole family But, the one and only consolation is, he is no longer suffering R.I.P

Hi,
I was browsing through the 'health' threads when I came across this. I lost a very close friend last week to pancreatic cancer, as I was reading your previous posts I was thinking that everything didn't bode well.

I wanted to say I am sorry to hear he has lost his battle too. x

KID and CONFUSED So sorry to hear of both these losses, life is so sad and short for some

I am sorry to hear this. I lost my mum to pancreatic cancer 13 years ago but whilst young (63) your friend's brother was too, too young for this.

I think you should talk with your friend or rather listen while she talks. From everything I have ever read on mumsnet about bereavement this worst thing is people avoiding you because they don't know what to say.

x

I would usually avoid people who have experienced a death as I just don't know what to say to them having not been through a loss myself.

But, 18 months ago, my uncle passed away which was a huge shock to all of us and it hit me bad. One of the things I noticed was how people avoided me. I totally understood that and didn't blame them at all. I also didn't like the way people questioned me about what had happened, I was able to discuss it sometimes but not always. Therefore, it would have been better for people to just ask how I was doing. I could either speak about it or just say I'll be fine and make a quick exit.

I also experienced the loss of a puppy very recently. While that is totally different to losing a person, it hit us all very badly as he was so young. He was still a family member after all.

A friend of my mum lost her husband to cancer a few years ago and she said that people used to cross the street as they didn't know what to say. I think we have quite a few hang ups on life and death in this country (look at how people don't like to cry loudly or obviously at funerals here in comparison to, say, Pakistan or China, for example.) Sometimes people don't know what to say, or to ask, but just being 'available' helps just as much.

As for losing your puppy, Kid, when my cat was run over me and DH had to take the week of work and simply couldn't function so I can understand where you are coming from completely with that one!