Vancouver grandmother loses both son and husband to pancreatic cancer in 55-day span

Lynda Blundell’s home is full of wonderful memories. The clock her son Phillip made for her hangs on her living room wall, as she dusts dozens of cannon figurines her husband Peter collected over the years.

“We had a good, long life together with two wonderful children and four beautiful grandchildren,” the 79-year-old said.

Tragically, that time with her family was cut short. Two years ago, Phillip was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Blundell said some of his symptoms included stomach pain and jaundiced eyes.

“It was very hard because my son had two very young children,” she said. “His wife was still on maternity leave when he was diagnosed."

A few months after his diagnosis, in August 2021, Phillip died at the age of 49. Sadly, the grief didn’t end there for the family. Fifty-five days after her son's death, Blundell's husband died of the same disease.

“I know my husband and son were very close and I wasn’t at all surprised after my son passed that my husband – his health seemed to deteriorate,” she said.

Blundell said the doctors and nurses were shocked by how the disease impacted her family members.

“They had never seen a case, a father and son, so they both had genetic testing and as far as they can tell at the moment, it’s not hereditary,” Blundell said.

'SILENT DISEASE'

Dr. David Schaeffer, the co-director of Pancreas Centre BC and the pancreatic cancer research chair at Vancouver General Hospital, said more than 800 British Columbians will be diagnosed with the disease this year, and that number is only continuing to grow.

“We often refer to the disease as a silent disease, and that is because the signs and symptoms often go unnoticed until the disease is in an advanced stage,” he said.

Some of those symptoms, he said, can include abdominal pain or mid-back pain, but differ depending on where the tumour is located in the pancreas.

Schaeffer said since the Pancreas Centre BC was founded, survival rates have improved from five to 10 per cent, which is why, he said, more research to understand the disease is crucial.

“Generous donors believe that research is the only way of unlocking the mystery of that disease,” he said.

For Blundell, finding a cure for pancreatic cancer is personal.

Wearing her husband’s wedding ring as a necklace, Blundell said by sharing her story on World Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Day, she hopes more people will donate to pancreatic cancer research.

“That would be most important to me, who has lived this journey, to have no one else go through this journey and no more fatherless children,” she said.