Maplewood Recognizes Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month

Maplewood has named November as Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month in the township with a proclamation read during a Nov. 4 Township Committee meeting.

“This is a special (proclamation) for me, three years and six weeks ago I was on the operating table having part of my pancreas taken out because I had a non-cancerous tumor there,” said Maplewood Mayor Victor De Luca before reading the proclamation.

In 2013, an estimated 45,220 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the United States and 38,460 will die from the disease, the proclamation stated.

Eight-year Pancreatic Cancer survivor and Millburn resident Michael Weinstein spoke on behalf of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network at the conclusion of the reading of the proclamation.