In Memory Of Patrick Swayze
It’s with the deepest regret that we announce the passing of Patrick Swayze to pancreatic cancer. Patrick Swayze, the actor and classically trained dancer whose role in the enduringly popular “Dirty Dancing” made him a movie star, battled pancreatic cancer for almost a year. Early last year, Swayze learned he had pancreatic cancer, a diagnosis that came two weeks after production wrapped on the pilot of “The Beast,” an A&E series in which Swayze starred as an unorthodox FBI agent.
Although the cancer was advanced, he was found to have a more controlled form of the disease and persuaded the network to go ahead with the series. It was shot over five months in Chicago while Swayze was undergoing chemotherapy and taking an experimental drug that targets tumors.
Today we mourn the loss of a movie star to the disease that has taken so many of our loved ones. Many of us at the Hirshberg Foundation know only too well the deep sense of loss that comes quickly in the face of pancreatic cancer. It is our dream and our mission to be part of the cure and we will not rest until pancreatic cancer is eradicated from every man, women, and child. “I feel like I wasted time with stardom back in the ’80s,” Swayze said. “Now I want it all. I want to do as much as I can.”
Our hearts and prayers go out to Patrick’s family and friends.
In October at the LA Cancer Challenge, we will walk in memory of Patrick Swayze and all those we love and lost. Please consider joining us to fight this terrible disease. Please visit