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LOCAL

Dover woman honors dad with fight against pancreatic cancer

Jeff McMenemy
Fosters Daily Democrat
Kelly Glennon, co-owner of Jewelry Creations in downtown Dover, lost her father to pancreatic cancer in 2010 and has been raising money to help fund research since that time.

DOVER — Kelly Glennon’s father was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer in March 2010.

Two months later, he was gone, Glennon said during an interview this week in the office of her downtown Jewelry Creations store.

Her father, John Cavanaugh, was just 58 when he died.

Before his pancreatic cancer diagnosis, “he was a perfectly healthy 58-year-old man, just perfectly healthy,” Glennon said.

Kelly Glennon is seen with her father John Cavanaugh. Cavanaugh lost his fight against pancreatic cancer at age 58.

Glennon described her father, who moved to Dover with her mother from Beverly, Massachusetts, as “the nicest man you ever met.”

“He was the guy that took care of the elderly people in our neighborhood, always made sure they had what they needed,” she said. “He loved nature, he had a kind heart, he was just a wonderful, wonderful human being.”

Since his death, she has been raising awareness about pancreatic cancer, which is often diagnosed late in its progression, and raising money for research.

November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.

“My dad’s quality of life in the two months from the time he was diagnosed was terrible; it’s no way for a healthy man to die. I just remember them saying it and not believing it,” Glennon said about her father’s diagnosis. “I thought they have to be wrong.

“He spent about a week in the hospital, and just to watch him deteriorate in that one week, how is that acceptable?"

Glennon and her husband, Doug Glennon, have raised more than $10,000 in the last four years through raffling off jewelry at their store. The raffle was held recently.

They match that money and also collect donations throughout the year for the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation, Glennon said.

People can donate directly to the foundation at www.npcf.us.

Potential symptoms of pancreatic cancer include jaundice, abdominal pain, back pain, digestive problems, weight loss and changes in stool, according to the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation.

Her father was eventually diagnosed with pancreatic cancer after suffering with a pain in his neck that turned out to be a broken vertebrae, Glennon said.

The cancer had already spread to his spine as well.

Because there are not many obvious symptoms, “when it is diagnosed it’s usually in stage 4, and it’s already spread into the organs and throughout the body, which makes it really hard to treat,” she said.

“It’s such a terrible form of cancer because it takes so long to diagnose,” she added.

Kelly Glennon, co-owner of Jewelry Creations in downtown Dover, believes she is following her father's legacy by working to help people through her efforts in the fight against pancreatic cancer.

More public attention has focused on pancreatic cancer after longtime “Jeopardy!” game show host Alex Trebek was diagnosed and ultimately died from it.

“It was emotional for my family to hear he had been diagnosed but uplifting at the same time to see how he battled and how he looked,” Glennon said. “My dad deteriorated so quickly, he lost so much weight and spent the last weeks of his life bedridden.”

But since his death in 2010, there’s been some improvements in treatment, Glennon believes, and she recalled seeing Trebek filming shows two weeks before he died.

“Those are the kinds of things that need to happen so people have a better quality of life," she said. "Ultimately, we want a cure, but if you’re given a diagnosis of stage 4 pancreatic cancer it shouldn’t feel like, 'I’m going to be gone in a couple of months, so let’s not do anything.' We should keep people as healthy as we can, because advancements are being made every day with treatments.”

Glennon was pregnant with her now 10-year-old son when her father died.

“He was born just a couple of months after my dad passed away. My dad got to hear his heartbeat, and that was really special to me,” she said. “I pretty much just decided that I needed to make a change.”

Glennon acknowledged she “knew nothing about pancreatic cancer before my dad was sick.”

“But to learn through the process how you hear if someone is diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer you’re a goner, that’s unacceptable to me,” she said.

By raising money for and awareness about pancreatic cancer, Glennon believes she’s following the example her father set.

“It’s important to me to carry on his legacy, he always instilled in me the importance of giving back and helping people around you,” I know that he would be really proud that we’re fighting this fight.”

She credited all the people who have come in to Jewelry Creations to buy raffle tickets or who have donated online.

“It’s really heartwarming to put yourself out there and see the community rally behind you and support you,” she said.

She hopes pancreatic cancer research will lead to a cure, but in the short-term she wants families to be able to have more time with their loved ones after a diagnosis.

“That’s what we all pray for, just to find a way for people to live longer with the disease comfortably and just extend their life,” she said. “Ultimately, the goal is for no one to have go through what my family went through.”