Patrick Swayze has Pancreatic Cancer** UPDATE** PS has passed away RIP

[JBean]

You are so right Tom'sGirl. Little Noah was only 2 when diagnosed...and barely three when he died.

Prayers to Patrick and his family!

Bless little Noah and you too Browine:blowkiss:
My stepson was diagnosed at 2 and died when he was 8. Cancer definitely doesn't discriminate based on age.

 

[LinasK]

Too Wong Foo was a great movie...along with Ghost and Dirty Dancing.

Loved them all and the song "She's like the Wind". How sad...

 

[montana_16]

I'm so sorry to hear this news. It's heartbreaking.

I am fortunate to have met him. My husband and I were on a cruise 2004 that started in S.F. and went down the coast to Cabo San Lucas and back.
Patrick happened to have formal dinner time at the same time we did in the same area. We'd see him walk past on his way to his table and back.

There were two guys who were traveling together who sat at our table and one wanted a picture with Mr.Swayze so bad. One evening towards the end of the meal Patrick walked by to go have a cigarette break in an area a little off from the dining room. The man seated with us picked up his camera to see if he could get a picture. So I got the courage to go to. I picked up my husband's digital camera that I barely knew how to use.

When I got out there Patrick was graciously taking photos with folks and getting his pictures taken from others.

I'm shy about this sort of thing so I waited and then we were the last 2 people out there. I asked him if he had time for one more and he said sure. Well, I tried to use that camera and couldn't figure it out. He stood 2 or 3 times for me and I got so frustrated because I couldn't get it to work and I didn't want to keep him waiting.

Well. guess what he did?!? He came over and helped me figure how to use the camera and posed one last time and it worked! He totally went out of his way to help me get the photo of him!

This post is long, but I wanted to share my experience with this wonderful, sweet, caring person. He never made me feel at all like I was taking his time.

He was so very nice and it is my favorite memory from the trip.

 

[Cubby]

This is so very sad. I love Ghost, and so does my 5 yr old, who has loved the movie since he was about 3.

So many touching stories from everyone. Prayers for PS and family and those who shared themselves.

 

[dingo]

I love the Ghost movie to Cubby...very sad news indeed.

 

[azwriter]

I was about to post this, too.
Oh my gosh this is so sad.

I just saw Ghost the other night on cable and cried my butt off and now this. I think Swayze is an AWESOME actor AND a GOOD PERSON!! You rarely hear anything bad about this guy, if anything at ALL!!



I hope he lives longer than they say he will.

Well, there is that plane crash in northern Arizona where he was drunk out of his skull.
Still, he doesn't deserve this. He is very talented and has filled an entertainment need. Hope his outlook is better than first reported.

 

[MrsMush99]

Yes. His name is Randy Pausch.

Here's his website:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/news/index.html

Thank you so much for this link, I've spent most of the evening laughing, crying and sighing at Randy's journal. What an inspiration.

You're welcome Holly. I found his site when my FIL was diagnosed. He really is an inspiration. But I fear the end is near for him.

 

[MrsMush99]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,335432,00.html

Swayze Victimized by Enquirer

How to announce — or hide — Patrick Swayze’s illness proved to be quite a PR dilemma yesterday. Rather than do what so many professionals have — own up to it and blunt the story in advance — his press people did nothing but stonewall.

The result is a story today on the cover of the National Enquirer claiming that not only does Swayze have pancreatic cancer, but only five weeks to live.

So much pain could have been avoided here. The Enquirer doesn’t care what it writes, true or false, or a little bit of both. It’s amazing to me that they proceeded to publication and no one tried to stop them.

 

[bnhall]

This was talked about on MSNBC this morning.

From the New York Post
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03062008/gossip/pagesix/add_swayze_rep_to_liars_den_100688.htm

MONTH ago, we called publicist Annett Wolf about a tip we had that Patrick Swayze had terminal pancreatic cancer. The fork-tongued flack not only denied the story (snip) Professional publicists avoid lying to reporters by declining to comment. Wolf is banished to our Liars' Corner.

Things are starting to get nasty now because a lot of media outlets are bitter that the NE broke the story when other sources have known about it for months.

 

[Floh]

Sod 'em! he CHOSE to keep his illness private.

he can chose to do what he wishes, he has that right.

 

[Lesleegp]

It really is sad to me that a person can't keep their illness private if they so choose. And just like Prince Harry being in Afghanistan......people/media knew and kept it quiet. Just took one hot shot to blow it for him.

 

[bnhall]

Sod 'em! he CHOSE to keep his illness private.

he can chose to do what he wishes, he has that right.

I agree. The NYP's point is that she could have said "no comment" instead of saying it was false. She is saying that she didn't know it was true. NYP is calling her a liar. They aren't blaming Patrick Swayze for not wanting to let people know.

 

[MrsMush99]

Sod 'em! he CHOSE to keep his illness private.

he can chose to do what he wishes, he has that right.

I agree that he does have a right to keep his illness private. However, on the other side of the coin, PC does not have a lot of awareness. People don't realize how DEADLY a disease this is. Maybe, him having this disease will bring more awareness. I am truly truly saddened that he is suffering from this. Bottom line, it is a death sentence. He could live 2 years with it, or 5 maybe even 10, but the fact remains that he WILL die from this. There needs to be more awareness and more research done for this horrific disease.

Even for those people diagnosed in the early stages of this disease the outcome is not good. If the cancer has not spread outside of the pancreas and surgery is possible, then about 15 out of 100 people (15%) will be alive 5 years later. In those who do not live this long, it is likely that a small number of cancer cells have ‘escaped’ from the pancreas and travelled to other parts of the body. These cells are capable of growing into other tumours later.

http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/default.asp?page=7519

There is no way to tell if you have this cancer. You don't know until symptoms present themselves. And most of the time it is too late.

All I'm saying is that I hope that Patrick having this beast of a disease helps to bring awareness. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. But the fact remains that he has it and will die from it. I just hope something good comes out of this and that is AWARENESS.

I hope I don't sound too harsh. I really don't mean to.

 

[MrsMush99]

Here's a good article:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/OnCall/story?id=4396882&page=1


Patrick Swayze Faces Tough Cancer Battle, Doctors Say
'Dirty Dancing' Star Likely Faces Stiff Odds Against Deadly Disease

From the article:

But even though the five-week time frame trumpeted by tabloids may be false, cancer specialists say that pancreatic cancer more often than not comes with a daunting prognosis.

Indeed, according to statistics from the National Cancer Institute, patients diagnosed with the disease have only a one-in-20 shot of being alive five years after the cancer is found. And the patient advocacy group Pancreatic Cancer Action Network pegs the average life expectancy for a patient diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that has spread at three to six months.

 

[hollyjokers]

I wonder if maybe his PR did not know initially, maybe he & his wife chose to keep it to themselves. Yesterday when the story broke there was no immediate statement from his spokesperson either confirming or denying it. That is very unusual that it took until late afternoon for them to release anything. I don't think it is the type of story that you would "not dignify with a response." It is serious enough that it demanded a response. Had they anticipated the story coming out, I think the PR people would have had a statement ready to fire off immediately - Sort of like the Green Bay Packers setting up a link on their website (then removing it) to announce Brett's retirement a few days before he officially announced it. I don't think Swayze's reps were prepared for it to come out, possibly because they were uninformed themselves.

 

[Class-z]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,335432,00.html

Swayze Victimized by Enquirer

How to announce — or hide — Patrick Swayze’s illness proved to be quite a PR dilemma yesterday. Rather than do what so many professionals have — own up to it and blunt the story in advance — his press people did nothing but stonewall.

The result is a story today on the cover of the National Enquirer claiming that not only does Swayze have pancreatic cancer, but only five weeks to live.

So much pain could have been avoided here. The Enquirer doesn’t care what it writes, true or false, or a little bit of both. It’s amazing to me that they proceeded to publication and no one tried to stop them.

He evidently has a series in the works. This type of thing is not good for an actor. They won't want to sign him for fear he'll die and they cant' get insured.

Look at Robert Urich, he had that wonderful series just going to start, they found out he had cancer and they dropped him like a hot potato, he lived about another six years. So sad!

I'm not trying to be negative here, but I do think the PR has to be all positive in order for him to work, plus they dont' want the media hanging outside his house waiting for him to die like they did with Michael Landon. These people don't have normal lives, they can't even die in peace.

 

[nanandjim]

...Things are starting to get nasty now because a lot of media outlets are bitter that the NE broke the story when other sources have known about it for months.

How sad is it when the media feels that it has the right to invade a dying man's privacy. Apparently, PS wanted to keep this issue private and deal with it himself and with his family. It is sad that even the NE couldn't allow him that. Sad and pathetic.

 

[bnhall]

How sad is it when the media feels that it has the right to invade a dying man's privacy. Apparently, PS wanted to keep this issue private and deal with it himself and with his family. It is sad that even the NE couldn't allow him that. Sad and pathetic.

It is sad. The media is a business. The one who breaks the story makes the most money. Those that were ethical (for once) and held off got burned. The public drives this idea - look at the readership numbers for the celebrity magazines. Most people who care about this aren't like the ones here who were patiently waiting for confirmation and understand that it is a personal issue. The public that drives the market doesn't seem (at least, to me) to care about the person, only the celebrity.

 

[spclk]

I just heard this this morning and I am heartbroken. My husband and all of my family will tell you that I have been in love with Patrick since I was very young. He is my alltime favorite actor. I put my daughter in dance because of my love of him and his dancing (that was 15 years ago). I am just stunned at this horrible news. He and Lisa will be steadfast in my prayers.

 

[Kim Ii]

Oh, this is all so very sad. Our paper, the San Ramon Valley Times, had quite a long article re: Swayze's pancreatic cancer scare. I'm not quoting verbatim, but the article did confirm, through Patrick's PR rep, that indeed, he does have pancreatic cancer, but that it was not true that he has but 5 weeks to live. The PR rep. also states that the cancer treatment is working well and that Patrick is currently working on a project.

Something tells me, though, that just the opposite is true. Call it a hunch...

GOOD LUCK AND GOD SPEED, Patrick! I wish him all the best...LOVED him in Dirty Dancing and GHOST, my all time favorite.