In April 2025, my beloved mom, Martha Marr, passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer. To put it bluntly, I am heartbroken. She is the woman who made me the person I am today. She gave me the support I needed to be successful in my career. She instilled in me the morals by which I live my life.

In her honour, I will be running the Ottawa Race Weekend 10k on May 24th. Training for this race has been a welcome distraction from her absence. More importantly, I feel a sense of purpose in raising money that could be used to fund pancreatic cancer research.

The 5 year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is around 10%. A main reason for the low survival rate is that the symptoms of pancreatic cancer are often not noticed until it is too late. This was the case with my mother. We only got one short month with her after her diagnosis. My hope is that with more research funding, we could someday have better early screening and detection methods for pancreatic cancer, so that other families might be spared from this awful disease.

If you are able to contribute, your support would mean the world to me at this time. Please donate to help me fight back against pancreatic cancer!