76 SEENA MAGOWITZ FOUNDATION Pancreatic Cancer Warriors SAUNDRA DEMEY-FORREST A PICTURE OF HOPE AND FAITH In The Face of No Hope, A Second Chance DE BRA G E LBART | CONTRI BUTI NG WRITER

SEENA MAGOWITZ FOUNDATION 77 Pancreatic Cancer Warriors Then, an oncologist told her that her cancer was so advanced, she would have no quality of life if she were treated with chemotherapy. But DeMey-Forrest refused to accept what she was hearing. She went home and searched online for “Stage 4 pancreatic cancer research trials.” That simple act of not giving up, of thinking beyond conventional wisdom, has helped her stay alive far longer than the three months or so the doctors had predicted in January 2015 when she was diagnosed. Today, she’s feeling good, traveling, enjoying time with her husband Jeff, her grown children and five grand - children, and showing almost no sign the cancer is progressing. Now her motto for her life, she says, is “No cure, no hope, no problem.” In February 2015, she was enrolled in a clinical trial sponsored by the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at HonorHealth and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) for 25 Stage 4 pancreatic cancer patients who had no previous treatment. A combination of three chemotherapy drugs that hasn’t been combined before to treat pancreatic cancer was administered intravenously every three weeks for about 10 months. After just three treatments, DeMey-Forrest’s scan showed dramatic improvement. Her tumors had shrunk and her tumor marker—one way doctors and researchers assess the extent of a particular cancer—had gone way down. Last year DeMey-Forrest says she’s “had a few setbacks,” but she’s now on an oral chemotherapy, Lynparza, hoping to stop a creeping tumor marker in its tracks. So far, it appears to be working. HER MISSION IS TO HELP OTHERS In the meantime, DeMey-Forrest wants to let the world know that “stage 4 pancreatic cancer is not a death sentence. “I pray every night that I can help someone else,” she said. “I think God has a plan for me. At the very least, I can pay it forward.” SAUNDRA DEMEY-FORREST OF PEORIA, ARIZONA WAS FACING THE SCARIEST CRISIS ANYONE CAN CONFRONT. SHE HAD BEEN TOLD BY A SURGEON THAT HER STAGE 4 PANCREATIC CANCER COULDN’T BE CURED, THAT SHE SHOULD “GO HOME AND GET YOUR AFFAIRS IN ORDER.”