Personal Story: Patrick Swayze
Patrick Swayze is well known for his roles in the movies, Dirty Dancing(1987) and Ghost(1990). He started dancing at a young age since his mother, Patsy Swayze, was the director of a dance school. It was at this school he met his wife, Lisa when they were younger. Later in life he went to pursue a dancing career and took over for the lead role in the Broadway production of Grease. In 1979 Swayze made his first film debut in the film Skatetown, U.S.A. In 1987 his role in Dirty Dancing would instantly make him into a celebrity and give him the title of Hollywood’s newest heartthrob. Then in March of 2008 Swayze was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer later being the cause of his death in September of 2009.
There are no screenings for pancreatic cancer and no symptoms show until after the cancer has already begun to spread. After being diagnosed the average life expectancy is three to six months. A couple ways to prevent pancreatic cancer are to not smoke or to quit if you already are, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising almost every day a week, as well as eating healthy. After his diagnosis Patrick worked to raise awareness for pancreatic cancer and its experimental treatments. Despite his cancer Swayze tried not to let it hold him down by continuing to work, even finishing 13 episodes of The Beast, a T.V. series he was starring in, without the help of pain medication. The cancer having already spread to his liver Swayze could not undergo surgery but instead went through chemotherapy treatments and took the experimental drug called Vatalanib to treat his cancer. After more than 20 months of battling cancer Swayze died peacefully on September 14th 2009.
