Cyprus Mail 18 November 2019 - article by Annette Chrysostomou
Cyprus will join the international Purple Lights for Pancreatic Cancer campaign on Thursday by lighting up a number of public buildings in the colour.
“Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate out of all cancers in Europe. It is the cause of death of over 95,000 patients each year in the EU. The median survival time of each patient after diagnosis is just 4.6 months. One in four patients who receive a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer will die within a month of diagnosis,” Nicoletta Epaminonda, Sofia Ergatoude and Theodora Epaminonda, who are behind the campaign, said in a statement.
Two of their fathers were such patients, dying approximately two weeks after diagnoses.
“Deaths from pancreatic cancer in the European Union increased by 5 per cent between 1990 and 2016,” the organisers said. “It is the steepest increase in the five most deadly cancers which include lung, breast, prostate and colorectal cancer.
Despite the fact that deaths due to pancreatic cancer are rising, and survival rates remain so low, this disease receives less than 2 per cent of all funding available for cancer research. “hese patients have not benefited at all from the impressive progress in the prognosis of patients who suffer from other cancers,” they added.
According to the announcement, the following buildings have already agreed to be lit up purple on Thursday: the Strovolos municipal theatre, the state gallery for contemporary art (which will be lit up for all of November), the House of Representatives, the Presidential Palace, the Limassol municipality, the Limassol district administration, the Cyprus museum and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The light-ups will be shared on social media with the following hashtags: #PurpleLightsCY.
