Meet Jewelz and her husband and caretaker, Matt, of Northern California. The couple have four children together and were both feeling optimistic about their future as they entered their 50s. However, they could never have been prepared for Jewelz’s pancreatic cancer diagnosis in 2022. Her stomach pain began in the 90s when she was just a high schooler, persisting into adulthood, but she always convinced herself she was being a hypochondriac about the pain.
Nevertheless, the severity of the pain sometimes made it hard to dismiss. Consulting a friend who noticed signs of jaundice prompted her to finally visit the emergency room in 2022. Upon admission, blood work and ultrasounds revealed stage 3 pancreatic cancer. As a mother of four, just barely in her 50s, this news came as a huge shock to her and her family.
She recalls having to tell her four children over a Facetime call that she had cancer, and their emotions have stuck with her. Her husband, Matt, joined her on this episode to share his perspective as her caretaker through all of this and how he stepped up with many of the parental duties while Jewelz battled pancreatic cancer. He had to leave a career he had been with for decades and change his routine to help her through this battle, but the pair emerged even stronger and closer as a family.
Join us for this heartwarming episode of the Project Purple podcast to learn more about Jewelz and Matt’s pancreatic cancer story.
If you’d like to see the art Jewelz creates, her Instagram is: https://www.instagram.com/tuckini_art/
