Meet Dan McNamee, who is originally from Cleveland but now resides in beautiful Paris. He was going about his life, starting a new family with his wife when he started experiencing pain in his left leg. This led him to visit the emergency department, where they discovered a blood clot.
Further testing revealed a tumor on Daniel’s pancreas. Although he was living in Paris at the time, he wanted to be with his family, especially since all of his siblings have careers in the medical world. He decided to undergo treatment in his hometown of Cleveland, where he and his young family lived with his mother and had the support of his family. He discussed the importance of having that support system during his treatment, recalling the times people around him stepped up to care for his children. He also credited his sister with helping him find the clinical trials that ultimately helped him beat pancreatic cancer. Daniel was able to receive clinical trials at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City, so he commuted from both Ohio and later Paris to receive his clinical trial medications.
Daniel also discussed the differences between the two different healthcare systems he dealt with during his battle with pancreatic cancer. Living in Paris upon diagnosis and then coming back to the U.S., he noticed the significant increases in the prices of medications and the improved access to clinical trials and newer methods of treatment. He has a unique perspective on the healthcare side of things.
During a stay at a hotel in New York City for his treatment, he was in town during the New York City Marathon, where he ran into people in purple singlets, Project Purple runners. He asked them about their cause and was surprised to learn of the organization as he was currently battling pancreatic cancer. He decided to run as part of Project Purple’s NYC Marathon team after he completed his treatments. As of a month ago, he received news that he was in complete remission, with clean scans a year after stopping all treatments. He discussed his choice to run for Project Purple and his training cycle as someone who is not a seasoned marathon competitor.
Join us for this optimistic and informative episode of the Project Purple Podcast to learn more about Dan’s fight against pancreatic cancer.
To connect with Daniel, you can follow him on Instagram: instagram.com/danmcnamee1
