Hey Guys! It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve been dealing with many things and one of those things is my pancreatic cancer. It returned last year in my right lung and liver area. I’ve been on chemo for seven months now. The plan is to shrink it prior to surgery to resect. It’s the same plan of action which has kept me alive all throughout my three previous occurrences - going back to 2014.
That said, my doctors want to edit the DNA of my white blood cells to target the solid pancreatic tumors. This is a new direction for cancer research. The current treatment for non surgical patients is really archaic and barbaric and has been the same for decades. This new therapy is called CAR-T (which has been around mostly for non solid cancer tumors) and it looks promising. I would be one of the first patients to receive this therapy in the US for pancreatic cancer and I will keep the doors open for surgery and other treatment methods open however - I’ve been lucky thus far. But CAR-T could potentially ‘cure’ or at least give cancer patient long lasting immunity. Which is something current drugs and therapy does not.
That said, I said good bye to my original Kirk Duncan Vintage Speedster as I need to focus on priories. It sold it to a good friend of mine who is an air cooled VW and Porsche fanatic. We went for a drive up the South Coast Hwy this morning and stopped for coffee before he drove it home. The Speedster will sit along side his ‘65 912 just like it sat next to my ‘69 912 in the garage the past few years. He agreed to offer the car back to me for the same price I sold it to him if my situation changes however!
For the last eight years I’ve been heavily involved in my 501c3 of choice - PanCAN. Every year we raise between 5M - 10M dollars to advance pancreatic cancer ‘The King of All Cancers’ research to develop treatment methods and therapeutics that yield better patient outcomes.
So far, my personal fundraising efforts have surpassed my goals and the campaign is doing very good. But, if anyone here feels so inclined to donate, please reach out to me and I will provide a link to my fundraising campaign. I do not know if it appropriate to actively solicit donations by posting a link on this thread.
Take care everyone, and if I come out on the other end if this episode like I did the previous three times, I’ll be back - most likely with a Spyder. I’ve seen so many fabulous builds here. This community is truly amazing and I’ve been blessed that you’ve allowed me to participate and somehow contribute - a little bit.
-Robert
