The Pancreatic Cancer Hope Foundation  is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to raising funding and awareness for pancreatic cancer as well as patient support for patients and their families. They are based out of Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Their foundation had its humble beginning about 15 years ago when a Pennsylvania woman by the name of Jenn Loconte started a 5K run in memory of her mother, Joan. The race was held annually and was called J’s Run in memory of her mother and another young woman who lost her life to pancreatic cancer. As the race grew, the board of J’s Run decided to expand our focus and create a foundation. The Pancreatic Cancer Hope Foundation was officially created in 2019. They continue to hold J’s Run on the 1st Saturday in May as our signature event and primary fundraising event.

 

Since inception, their foundation has raised thousands of dollars and they are proud to say that through their efforts we have helped establish the first pancreatic cancer specific support group  within the Cancer Support Community of the Lehigh Valley, PA. The support community continues to provide patient and family support for pancreatic cancer patients and their families and Pancreatic Cancer Hope Foundation provides annual support to continue this important service.

Over the years they have provided funding to Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown,  Pennsylvania, St Luke’s University Medical Center in Allentown, PA and Johns Hopkins Hospital In Baltimore, MD to help these institutions in their pancreatic cancer research efforts.

Their latest patient support project was to help create a nutrition bank at Lehigh Valley Hospital to provide much needed nutritional supplements to pancreatic cancer patients.

They were very proud to sponsor a symposium this past November where they were excited to host a speaker from Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital to speak on the progress of the newest pancreatic cancer vaccine trials. Another symposium is planned for this coming November.

As well as providing financial support, another large area of focus for their foundation is promoting awareness of pancreatic cancer and it is their hope that though our efforts as well as through the larger efforts of WPCC we can continue to promote awareness and attention to this disease.