Purple Stride Walk for Pancreatic Cancer
Saturday April 6th was the Purple Stride Walk to end pancreatic cancer. These events are a network of events across the nation that raise tons of money for pancreatic cancer survivors and research. They also highlight success stories about survivors and give extra help to families who need it. This is an encouraging time for families who need the motivation to keep their eyes on victory over this disease. Treatment for pancreatic cancer has not evolved much in the last 50 years like many other treatments have. The main options are radiation or chemotherapy and our main objective in our fight for cannabis access is to help these patients cope better with treatments. We do not claim that cannabis is a cure all but we are confident it will ease the symptoms of the other treatments for pancreatic cancer. About 50,000 people every year die from pancreatic cancer and about the same number are diagnosed with the disease. With no known alternatives to the harsh treatments, we are fighting for cannabis access in the medical community to counteract the negative effects of the medicines being used. Nourishing the body with food during treatment is one of the most important steps as well as adequate sleep to heal the body. Cannabis helps stimulate the appetite and also suppress pains from nausea during radiation treatment.
We met some amazing people at the event including the director of food and beverage, Tim, who was there fighting for two of his family members that have been affected by this disease. Tim is also an MMJ patient here in Arizona and understands the benefits of cannabis as part of a healthy lifestyle. There were many people like him in the crowd who were eager to hear more about THC/CBD and learn how they can use them in place of other medications and harsher treatments. Again, we do not claim that cannabis can cure anything even though we believe it is possible.
The festivities started at about 7:00 a.m. with teams checking in, some fun announcements, and finally a moment of silence for those who have lost the battle with pancreatic cancer. There were success stories of victories and healings from the past year. It was uplifting to hear from survivors twenty to thirty years since their battle who are just back to living a normal life. As the racers gathered at the starting line, I hurried to the front to wish them good luck and make a quick announcement about cannabis medicine.
I announced to the crowd, “If you have any family members or friends who have any questions or need education about using cannabis THC or CBD as medicine, PLEASE contact us at www.cannabiscactus.com. AND KICK SOME PANCRE-ASS OUT THERE TODAY!!!”
The people clapped and cheered and it was the happiest adrenaline rush I’ve felt in a long time. I was nervous to speak in front of a random large group about cannabis and then the reaction was so positive. Afterwards people were coming up to ask more about THC and to explain how hard chemotherapy treatments were on their family members. They hadn’t realize there were other options for using cannabis besides smoking. I enjoyed bonding with these families and hope to be more involved in this event next year by officially partnering and helping raise money within the cannabis community. This year we were just happy to be in attendance and enjoy the day with everyone else. On a side note, the Scottsdale police were awesome and very supportive of cannabis and hopefully someday they can say so publicly. Shout out to the officers who believe in cannabis and do not believe in arresting people for possessing cannabis.
We are so excited to be taking cannabis education to mainstream outlets and events such as this period we want to recognize MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Mayo Clinic for all they’ve done to help patients and patient families. We hope that they will open their medical community to what we have to offer with cannabis medicine. I have never known anyone with pancreatic cancer but cancer affects nearly every family in America and we can all relate somehow to the suffering from cancer treatment and the grief and pain caused from the disease.
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