Linda's Story

Aunt Angie on the left and Linda on the right, two amazing ladies!

For my final awareness story, I wanted to introduce you to Linda Klug and her amazing family. Because November is Pancreatic Cancer awareness month, I thought it fitting to leave this amazing story to the very end. This way, the series really ends with an inspiring impact. Pancreatic Cancer is a scary diagnosis because there is so little that doctors know about how to fight it. Help me and my cousins raise more awareness about this scary disease by reading more about her story and doing some extra research to help! At the end of this story, I'll have a couple different ways you can help make a difference!

Stacy (Klug) Budzinsky and her sister Stephanie Klug, have asked me to help raise awareness for their cause. Their Grandma (my great aunt) and Mom were both diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Both fought the fight, but respectfully lost. They were amazing women who raised amazing families, and I'm lucky to be related to such a strong group of men and women. They have done so much to raise awareness and money for pancreatic cancer.

The following story was published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on September 18, 2010 and really gives you a good sense of their story:

She opts to fight rocky prognosis

Mark Abramson

Bob Kroll, 80, visits daughter Linda Klug. She is fighting the pancreatic cancer she was diagnosed with on the day she buried her mother, who had the same disease. On Sunday, she and family members will go to Madison for the Purple Stride fund-raiser and pancreatic cancer awareness event.

On the day Linda Klug helped bury her mother 10 months after her diagnosis with pancreatic cancer, Klug learned that she had it, too.

In the end, her 79-year-old mother, Angella Kroll, succumbed on her own terms - as much as they could be her own, under the circumstance.

She discontinued painful treatment so she could have a peaceful, beautiful Christmas with her family - and she did. She knew her husband, Bob, would be comfortable in the Muskego retirement center where they'd moved to from West Allis last May. She organized details of her June funeral.

Three days before she died, she asked to speak to her children and grandchildren, one by one, so she could have one last special conversation with each.

Her daughter, Linda, 55, of Vernon, knows what she's facing. She's a nurse. She researched the dire statistics of pancreatic cancer - the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. that is usually discovered in an advanced stage, as Klug's is, and rarely curable.

With other family members and hospice caregivers, she tended to her mother at her sickest. With her father and siblings, they grieved each stage along the way and prepared themselves for the end before it came.

She is not prepared, however, to give up on herself. Nor is her family.

"We're going to fight. I'm going to fight," Klug said.

Now they rally around her as she wages her personal battle using a Rocky-inspired theme. The music psyches her up. She's worn boxing gloves and a Rocky T-shirt to treatment. Monday she survived Round 4 of chemotherapy.

And on Sunday morning, Klug and literally a busload of family and friends will take the fight beyond themselves, traveling to Madison for the Purple Stride run-walk fund-raiser and pancreatic cancer awareness event at Elver Park.

Klug's daughters, Stacy and Stephanie, have organized Team Klug they call FUPC. Technically, and keeping with the Rocky theme, it's an acronym for "Fighting with Uppercuts Pancreatic Cancer" - though it's not hard to think of some other choice words that fit, as well.

About 48 team members will be walking in support of Klug's fight and also in memory of "Angel Grammy Kroll."

Bob Kroll, a retired school bus driver, says he'll be on the bus for his wife and daughter.

Klug's daughter Stacy hopes the event can help advance research for a disease that hasn't had enough of it. The effort is also therapeutic, she said, a way to help her cope, to focus on something positive so, with her siblings and father, Mike, they can help buoy her mother's spirits.

"We don't want other people to have to experience what we're experiencing," she said.

I once teased an oncologist that I'd seen his name mentioned (with thanks) in many, many obituaries. I said either he was a lousy doctor, or he took care of very, very sick people, knowing full well it was the latter.

He said one of his jobs was to help some have a "good death" - time to take care of their affairs, to share in the love of family and friends a little longer, to have the chance to say goodbye.

Linda Klug wants desperately to beat pancreatic cancer. But she knows the odds.

"You can prolong your life with treatment, but there's not really a good chance of cure," she said. "I'm looking to give myself a longer life, to spend more time with my family, to attend their weddings, maybe to see grandchildren. That's what I'm fighting for."

The memory of granddaughter Stacy Klug's emotional yet touching last goodbye with her grandmother was one she says she will never forget.

"Grammy" Angella Kroll asked Stacy to wear the cross necklace confirmation gift at her upcoming wedding - and offer it to other grandchildren to wear at their weddings, too. The necklace had come from Kroll's father as a "sweet 16" gift, and Kroll's children had worn it at their weddings. Stacy will wear it at her wedding in November.

"We were extremely lucky to have all the time we had with her," Stacy Klug said. "We knew the prognosis wasn't good, and we were able to cherish every holiday, every birthday. I have wonderful pictures, wonderful memories."

It's not a bad way to end.

Sadly, Linda's fight ended on December 28, 2010, just months after her diagnosis. However, her family and friends have continued the fight against this disease by creating FUPC and raising awareness like crazy. They're working so hard and I cannot wait to show you the bags I am making to help support their cause! The bags are still in the works, but will be finished tomorrow! Look again for pictures!

• In the meantime,  please visit http://www.pancan.org/ to learn more. Seriously, search the website, its very nice! 

• Also, if you are interested or have been touched by this serious disease you can also visit: http://www.knowitfightitendit.org/.

• The most amazing link I have for you is to  http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lindaklug This is the caring bridge website that Linda set up and updated. The girls have kept the site open, so feel free to check out her story, and made sure to click on the "Journal" section. It really makes the story hit home. I also encourage you to sign the guest book and let the girls know what you think about their story and their cause.

I will be posting more about the Klug Ladies fight with FUPC and other ways to raise awareness! This post is long enough as it is. Please check back again tomorrow night or Saturday morning!

Have a beautiful day!