14 SEENA MAGOWITZ FOUNDATION T HIS FIRST-EVER SEENA MAGOWITZ FOUNDATION TRIBUTE BOOK HAS A BACK STORY TO IT. LIKE MANY OF YOU WHO ARE READING THIS, IT’S DUE TO A DEEPLY PERSONAL CONNECTION TO PANCREATIC CANCER. My wife and I purchased Frontdoors Media and Frontdoors Magazine in early 2017. One of the reasons we did so was because we had a great team assembled to produce it — led by a close friend and colleague of ours named Mike Saucier, who served as our first editor. We had worked with Mike for years and became friends with both he and his family, including his wife, journalist Fernanda Santos Saucier, and their young daughter Flora — who quickly became our daughter Ellie’s best friend. Mike did an exceptional job of building the vision for the publication and writing compelling stories and content, as we knew he would. In late June 2017, he was pitched a story about a guy named Roger Magowitz and the foundation he created in honor of his late mother Seena, who died of pancreatic cancer. Mike interviewed Roger and the article ran in the July 2017 issue of Frontdoors Magazine. It was one of dozens of articles Mike wrote, and we published it and kind of forgot about it after the time. Three months later, the cruel twist of fate occurred. In what seemed at the time like a sick irony, while we were producing an issue of the magazine celebrating cancer survivors, Mike was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The disease ravaged his body and didn’t provide him with an opportunity to fight back. Mike died, with Fernanda at his side, at home on November 1, 2017. It is difficult to understate how devastated we all were at the loss. Mike was a kind, thoughtful, purposeful BY TOM EVANS | CONTRI BUTI NG EDITOR THE TWIST OF FATE That Brought Us Together per son wh o so thoroughly lived and enjoyed the human experience. He was beloved by friends, family and colleagues for his patient manner and exceptional wit. His passing sparked an outpouring of condolences from across the country, from people who were positively impacted by Mike throughout his time with us. Andrea and I decided to dedicate Frontdoors Media and Frontdoors Magazine to Mike’s memory, in perpetuity. Along with Fernanda, we established a memorial fund for those who wanted to help in some way, with the idea that when the dust settled, we would turn that into a charitable foundation that would be the philanthropic arm of Frontdoors Media. This fund turned into The Sauce Foundation, which is raising money to fund pancreatic cancer research at TGen, and to fund the Mike Saucier Memorial Scholarship at the Arizona State University Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications. So back to how we met Roger — I was sitting around one night in March 2018 thinking about all the things that had transpired since Mike had passed away, and just out of curiosity, I decided to Google Mike’s name, to see some of what had been posted online since his passing. It was then that I stumbled across Mike’s article about Roger and the Seena Magowitz Foundation. I had completely forgotten about it until then, but reading Mike’s description of Roger and the foundation’s work, I felt like he had left me an Easter egg. So, I reached out to Roger, and since then he’s become a good friend to Andrea, Fernanda and I, culminating with us all working together to produce the book you see in front of you — Fernanda even wrote the cover story on Dr. Daniel Von Hoff. It’s an incredibly gratifying twist of fate that after all that happened with Mike — who was as gifted a storyteller as you would ever encounter — we’ve all been brought together to tell the stories you’ll read in this book. I think Mike would approve. I think he’d be proud that we’re able to share the experiences of these pancreatic cancer warriors, heroes and advocates. We hope you enjoy them, and trust you will be inspired by what you read. From the Publisher

SEENA MAGOWITZ FOUNDATION 15 From the Publisher