"It doesn't matter what the odds are. The odds make sense only to us. If the treatment is working for us, that's all that matters."
Mark Tardie
On average, around seven percent of pancreatic cancer patients survive five years. Mark Tardie has been cancer-free for 12.
“It’s a bit counter-intuitive, but truly the days that I felt physically the worst, I felt emotionally the best because that treatment was working in my mind, and no matter how difficult the treatment is, I continued to show up, and I know it’s cliché, but a lot of life is showing up. And I think in this regard - receiving treatment - you need to show up.
“I’m particularly thinking about someone that was diagnosed around the same time that I was. He was older than me, he had a family, and he always told me, he said, ‘Mark, we are a statistic of one.’ And I thought about that. And he said, ‘It doesn’t matter what the odds are. The odds make sense only to us. If the treatment is working for us, that’s all that matters.’
“So you can look at the numbers all day long, but in reality, it’s not 100% that this disease is going to take you. So let’s take the optimistic approach, and let’s take the smaller numbers and consider ourselves in that category.”
At the age of 33, Mark was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. At the time, Mark was not married and was working as a biochemist. He now works with global health authorities in an effort to get much needed medicines into clinical trials and commercialized. Mark’s girlfriend at the time of his diagnosis is now his wife, and the two have a six-year-old daughter.
Mark reminds everyone that life is good! He loves cooking, photography, traveling with his family, and spending time with them. For Mark, family comes first even though work is very important to him, too. His advice to others is “SHOW UP. Show up for treatment.”
For more stories on cancer survival, visit WNPR's Survivor Stories.
