Latest research shows that 97% of Americans now have a smartphone.  This represents nearly 300 million devices and a level of connectivity never seen before.

Yet despite this unprecedented level of connectivity and access to information, the vast majority of Americans know very little about pancreatic cancer, the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S.

Founded in 2020, the Charlotte Pancreatic Cancer Alliance was created to increase awareness of the disease with a hyper local focus on the fast-growing Charlotte, North Carolina region located in the Southeast USA.  With a regional population of 2.9 million, Charlotte is recognized as one of America’s fastest growing cities with a 15.2 percent increase in population since 2010.  The Charlotte Pancreatic Cancer Alliance wants to tap into this fast-growing population, and its connectivity to smartphones, to create greater awareness.

To meet this goal, the Charlotte Pancreatic Cancer Alliance executes our mission with a focus on 3 things:

1. We build community. We use our knowledge and relationships to build and connect the Charlotte region’s diverse pancreatic cancer community.
2. We share stories. Storytelling is the best way to teach, persuade and build understanding.  We use stories to connect the greater Charlotte region to the pancreatic cancer cause.
3. We create purple buzz. We use our expertise in marketing, social media, and public relations to create local buzz and awareness for pancreatic cancer.

Our logo has great meaning to our three founders (Grace Lynch, Patti Weber, and Mark Weber) and reflects our organization’s commitment to raising awareness.  Charlotte is known as the “Queen City,” and the crown is a popular symbol that ties to the city’s history.  The three jewels inside the crown represent the three family members that our founders lost to pancreatic cancer. Grace lost her niece, Carmen Reyes, to the disease.  The Webers are a married couple.  Patti lost her father, Jim Benson, and Mark lost his mother, Shirley Weber, to pancreatic cancer.

The Charlotte Pancreatic Cancer Alliance raises awareness for pancreatic cancer 365 days of the year using a variety of platforms.  We invite you to view our 2020 Impact Report to see how we created awareness during our first year of operations amidst the global pandemic.

Please visit our website and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.  We invite you to like and share our content as we work together as one World Pancreatic Cancer Coalition family to increase awareness and rewrite the story of pancreatic cancer.

To learn more about the Charlotte Pancreatic Cancer Alliance, visit their website here.