Pancreatic cancer fast facts
Caroline Robinson has muted the clapper of her bell and stilled her hearty signature hail of ‘‘Oyez’’. Palmerston North’s town crier has been an endearing and ebullient personality, offering proclamations at public events from graduations to conventions since 2000.
But the the multi-award-winning colourfully liveried character will be absent from tomorrow’s Christmas parade through the city.
‘‘Eight weeks ago, I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer,’’ says Robinson, 68.
Cancer in any of its forms, she says, is no respecter of persons. She has the same cancer that killed Apple’s Steve Jobs in 2011 and the ‘‘Queen of Soul’’ Aretha Franklin in August.
‘‘The prognosis is not good. I haven’t got a great deal to look forward to, but I’m just going to roll with the punches.’’
Down to a skeletal 40 kilograms, Robinson decided to talk about her illness as a means to raise awareness – that the cancer that crept up on her could creep up on you too.
‘‘I have done a lot of fundraising for the Cancer Society. Pancreatic cancer is insidious, but it can be treated if caught in the early stages. If I can encourage any greater awareness of it, I will have made a contribution.’’
Choosing to accept her fate with equanimity and courage, Robinson’s attitude is beyond bravado. Her calm ‘‘comes from the soul’’.
‘‘For whom the bell tolls... I haven’t had a stroke or heart attack, so I have time to get my life in order. There’s no sense in getting upset or angry. Anger will just eat at you and make the time you have left much worse.’’
The Cancer Society’s community health advocate Kerry Hocquard describes Robinson as ‘‘one of the people who makes our community special to live in’’.
‘‘Caroline has been so generous with her time and energy. This is really sad.’’
Some 570 New Zealanders are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year, with rates rising 10 to 15 per cent year on year.
Hocquard is full of praise for Robinson’s determination to live the best life possible by making the most of every day.
‘‘She is making sure her experience has something to teach everybody,’’ Hocquard says.
Robinson hadn’t felt well since April, but at the time was dealing with her father’s illness and death in O¯ amaru, and put it down to stress.
‘‘When I got back [to Palmerston North], [the feeling] just wouldn’t go away and became steadily worse.’’
Persistent stomach and back pain was accompanied by steady weight loss, but Robinson thought that was due to recent gastric restriction surgery.
Pancreatic cancer can cause the skin and eyes to become jaundiced. Robinson’s skin colour remained normal. Even the doctors were misled.
‘‘I wasn’t presenting with the typical symptoms. Typical of me to be atypical.’’
Even after six weeks of tests and procedures, which included having her gall bladder removed, the source of the pain remained elusive.
‘‘[The pain] was horrendous. I would put on my game face for a [town crier] gig, come home and curl up in a foetal position and just rock backwards and forwards.’’
Her weight continued to plummet. Those who remember Robinson as being as robust in person as she was in personality would be shocked at the change.
‘‘I’ve always battled with my weight, but if I’d known I was going to lose it all ‘naturally’, I wouldn’t have spent all that money on gastric surgery.’’
Although Robinson now has medication to dull the pain, the delay in diagnosis means it is too late for life-saving treatment.
‘‘I may have three to six months left. At first I thought: ‘Why me?’ And then I thought: ‘Why not me?’’’
Robinson and her sister Paddy-Ann Pemberton, who is town crier for Central Otago, met with Palmerston North mayor Grant Smith in November to formally tender her resignation from the Millenium Project role she landed in 2000.
‘‘I can’t project my voice anymore.’’ Town crier was a city council-funded ceremonial and ambassadorial ‘‘calling" Robinson carried out with professional panache.
President of the Guild of New Zealand Town Criers, Robinson is the reigning National Champion Town Crier, has competed in international competitions and won the inaugural world women’s-only town crier championship.
In March, UCOL presented her with an honorary associate award for her contributions to ceremonial traditions during UCOL graduations.
The second of four sisters and a brother, Robinson was born on Long Island in New York State to a Kiwi dad and American mum. The family came to New Zealand when she was 4 and she moved to Palmerston North in 1968 to go nursing.
Her medical background has helped put things in perspective.
‘‘Having been a nurse, I’ve dealt quite a bit with death’’.
On November 18 at St Peter’s College, where she worked with senior students as a Gateway co-ordinator and careers administrator, Robinson hosted a five-hour BYO Celebration of Life. The get-together with family, friends and colleagues packed the school hall with hundreds of brightly dressed, by request, wellwishers.
Seated in a decorated wheelchair, Robinson had time, smiles and conversation for everyone and, with her three sisters, reformed the vocal quartet they used to perform in for a harmonic sing-along Sometimes referred to as ‘‘the most prevalent cancer you’ve never heard of’’, pancreatic cancer is difficult to cure.
❚ According to Ministry of Health 2016 figures, it was the fifth most common cause of cancer death after lung, colorectal, prostate and breast cancer
❚ In 2015, it was the third most common cancer of the digestive organs, with 33 diagnosed in the MidCentral Health DHB region.
Risk factors:
❚ smoking – cigarette smokers are about twice as likely to develop pancreatic cancer
❚ ageing
❚ type-2 diabetes
❚ obesity pancreatitis (long-term inflammation of the pancreas)
❚ certain types of cysts in the pancreatic duct known as intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms
❚ drinking too much alcohol
❚ family history and inherited conditions.
Symptoms:
Symptoms often only appear once the cancer is large enough to affect nearby organs, or has spread. They may include:
❚ jaundice – yellowish skin and eyes, dark urine, pale bowel motions and itchy skin
❚ indigestion (heartburn)
❚ appetite loss
❚ nausea with or without vomiting
❚ unexplained weight loss
❚ pain in the upper abdomen, side or back, which may cause you to wake up at night
❚ changed bowel motions – including diarrhoea, severe constipation, or pale, oily, foul-smelling stools that are difficult to flush away.
Robinson hopes the town crier legacy she has created won’t be left to lapse and that the cry of ‘‘Oyez’’ will continue to herald significant events in the city.