Pancreatic Cancer UK’s aim to give people “more than hope” after diagnosis is inspiring a team of London Marathon fundraisers who hope a new breath test will save thousands of lives by catching the disease earlier.
Among them is Jo Jefferies whose father Kevin Hesketh was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January 2008 and died the following year.
Mrs Jefferies, 54, said she felt lucky he lived long enough to attend her wedding and meet her first baby before his death in November 2009 aged 66.
“When I saw the strapline of ‘more than hope’ that PCUK had adopted, it couldn’t depict it any better than our experience of what we’ve gone through,” she told the PA news agency.
“You realise you’re almost holding your breath at every point just thinking ‘I hope this is going to happen’ because, everybody who has a pancreatic cancer diagnosis, really it’s tantamount to a death sentence at the moment.
“I have met people who have had weeks, less than a handful of weeks, with their beloved people that have been diagnosed.”
Around 10,500 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the UK each year, and more than half of them die within three months of their diagnosis. Less than 7% live for five years.
There are currently no early detection tests and four out of five people (80%) are not diagnosed until the cancer has spread, meaning life-saving treatment is no longer possible.
Pancreatic Cancer UK is the TCS London Marathon’s charity of the year and more than 700 runners are raising money towards a £2 million target to launch a breath test which Mrs Jefferies said would be “game changing”.
“It’s inexpensive, it’s going to cost £10-12 for GP surgeries to be able to conduct this breath test which will be able to diagnose it at such an early stage.”
The charity said diagnosing the deadliest common cancer in its early stages is a huge challenge for doctors because the symptoms, such as back pain, stomach pain and indigestion, are common to many less serious health conditions.
Mr Hesketh had thought losing weight was due to being more active after he retired from his job as an engineer in the car insurance industry but he sought medical advice when his wife Joan said he looked yellow.
“It was a real blow to everybody. Dad was only 64 at the time, he was incredibly energetic, vibrant, loved life, he was almost child-like in this enthusiasm for life,” Mrs Jefferies told PA.
Mr Hesketh had surgery and the family hoped for a “bright future” but cancer cells were found in his lymph nodes and he had to have chemotherapy.
When Mrs Jefferies’ now husband, Daniel, proposed in summer 2008, they planned their wedding “very quickly” for December.
She praised wedding photographer Dave Burlison for capturing “really, really special moments”, adding: “There’s a photograph of me hugging dad and just crying because I couldn’t believe he had made it.”
When baby Martha was born, Mrs Jefferies’ mother and two sisters took her father from his home in Greater Manchester to Winchester.
“He came into the hospital and he was there and he held her,” Mrs Jefferies said.
“It was just so special because he shouldn’t have made that, he was just so sick.”
He visited for a second time but soon after his health worsened, he was taken to St Ann’s Hospice in Heald Green, Greater Manchester, and Mrs Jefferies received a call to say she needed to get there.
“I said to him ‘Dad, can you hear me?’ and I just heard a noise and I said ‘I’m on my way, I’m coming to see you, hold on’ and he said ‘OK’. OK were the last words that he said.”
Her father was unconscious when she arrived but she said being there for his final hours was a “precious memory”.
He died with his wife and three daughters beside him, minutes after they told him “it’s OK to go, you don’t have to hang on any more, you don’t need to suffer any more”, she said.
“He would have fought forever if he could have done but he was just so sick and suffering so much.”
She added: “It was unimaginably painful facing what we knew was going to be a future which looked very different.”
Mrs Jefferies praised PCUK for supporting not only the person who has been diagnosed but also their loved ones who are also “suffering” and described the charity’s helpline service as “a lifeline”.
We’re here for you. If you or someone you care about has pancreatic cancer, we are here to help.
— Pancreatic Cancer UK (@PancreaticCanUK) March 27, 2025
Our specialist nurses can answer your questions, recommend practical steps and provide the emotional support you and your loved ones need, when you need it most. 💜 pic.twitter.com/5tDUdTXCbL
Mr Hesketh is remembered on the family milestones which he did not live to see: “Mum’s 70th birthday was not long after he died, that was the first big milestone birthday. He missed the birth of our second child. He’s missed significant stuff with the grandchildren.
“He’s definitely kept alive in the way that we live our lives and we still talk about him but there are significant things that he’s missed and we would have loved him to be a part of.”
Mrs Jefferies, an HR director whose daughters Martha and Naomi are now 15 and 13, shared a love of sport with her father who was a keen lacrosse player and Manchester United fan.
He used to go out running with his best friend in the 1980s: “I do remember them saying that they were going to do the Manchester Marathon but they never did it.”
“I don’t know if that’s what’s been in my head and made me think I want to do a marathon,” she said.
She said her mother, now 84, is “incredibly proud” and, in a message on her Instagram, told her “your Dad will be with you all the way, take his wings and fly”.
Others who are running for PCUK and have been through the same “terrible experience” have been a great support, she said.
“I feel like this has been my grieving process. I don’t think I’d realised just how much of a lid I’d kept on it until I started doing this.
“I’ve actually texted that group in the middle of a long run when I’ve thought I can’t do any more and the number of people that responded instantly with words of encouragement, it’s just phenomenal.”
Mrs Jefferies has lost three other “healthy, vibrant” friends to pancreatic cancer. One was aged just 29.
“They had so much to live for. Their lives were taken way too soon,” she said.
“I look forward to the day when somebody has a pancreatic cancer diagnosis that isn’t a death sentence.”
Pancreatic Cancer UK recommends anyone experiencing one or more of the most common symptoms – back pain, indigestion, stomach pain and weight-loss – for more than four weeks should contact their GP. Anyone with jaundice – yellowing of the eyes or skin – should immediately go to A&E.
– To sponsor Jo, visit: https://2025tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/joanne-jefferies?utm_source=enthuse&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=f-onboarding&utm_content=page&utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=enthuse
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