Record crowd at South Perth walk for pancreatic cancer

A RECORD 500 people dressed in purple walked on South Perth foreshore for 5km on Sunday to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer.

The 6th Avner Pancreatic Cancer Foundation’s Put Your Foot Down walk at Sir James Mitchell Park raised more than $52,000 for pancreatic cancer research.

South Perth resident Janet Gilmour said it was great to see all the purple and be part of the record-breaking crowd as a first-time walker.

“The awareness is getting out there, slowly but surely,” she said.

“For me it’s about supporting loved ones, raising awareness and hopefully encouraging the government to continue with trials.”

Pancreatic cancer survivor Nigel Toomer did the walk for the fifth time to spread the word that pancreatic cancer can be beaten.

“It took about a week to diagnose and then pretty much, one week later I’m on chemotherapy,” he said.

“So it was just rush-rush and luckily enough because that’s why I’m still here now, because they got to it quite early.”

St John of God Head of Oncology Andrew Dean said WA was a frontier State in terms of survival rates and treatment for pancreatic cancer.

“In WA we have two centres; a co-operation between Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and St John of God in Subiaco and a co-operation between Fiona Stanley Hospital and St John of God in Murdoch,” he said.

“The consequence of that is we have embraced new treatments before they become standard of care around the world.”

For more information, visit www.avnersfoundation.org.au.