By Khalida Sarwari
A cancer diagnosis usually doesn’t trigger thoughts of one’s attic, but when Rich Blish found out he had pancreatic cancer nearly six years ago, that’s one of the first things that came to his mind.
Blish, a 73-year-old retired engineer from Saratoga, said he felt confident about his chances when doctors diagnosed him with stage 1 pancreatic cancer. Upon reading the description of a clinical trial they recommended for him, he was convinced his chances of surviving the disease were all but guaranteed. And yet, he found himself thinking about his attic.
“On a rational basis, I knew I was going to survive,” Blish explained. “Emotionally, not so. The first thing I did after the diagnosis, I went to clean the attic so that Sue wouldn’t have to do it.”
Sue is Blish’s wife, and along with his son and daughter, she’s “the rock that got me through” the cancer, said Blish. Today, the attic is clean and the man responsible for that is around and healthy enough to enjoy the fruits of his labor. For a disease that can’t promise more than a 7 percent survival rate past five years, it’s safe to say the odds were and continue to be in Blish’s favor.
“How come I survived and 95 other people did not?” It’s a question Blish thinks about from time to time, and he admits he occasionally struggles with “survivor’s guilt.” But rather than letting it consume him, Blish said he he’s allowed his guilt to propel him to help others struggling with the disease.
In 2012, he joined the local affiliate of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network as a volunteer to help advance the organization’s mission to fund research and support patients affected by pancreatic cancer.
On May 31, he participated in the organization’s Purple Stride walk and run event in San Francisco, and in the meantime he’s preparing to chair the Silicon Valley Purple Stride event on Nov. 7.
As part of his advocacy work, he also maintains a research blog related to pancreatic cancer, writes letters to educate others about the disease and helps organize health fairs.
“I just want to see more people survive,” Blish said. He relayed the story of a friend from college whom he went on to work with at Intel, but with whom he eventually lost touch. Years later at an Intel reunion party, he discovered his friend had died from pancreatic cancer.
“Our ships sailed together and unfortunately apart,” said Blish. “Frankly I find it kind of sad that he died without a trace, so I’ve been as public as possible to get the word out.”
When asked what he’d say to others who are in the same shoes he was in six years ago, Blish stresses the importance of clinical trials. After his diagnosis in August 2009, he spent nearly a year at a cancer center in Seattle, where aside from undergoing a series of radiation, surgeries and chemotherapy, he participated in an experimental trial with 35 other people, all of whom survived, he said. He’s been in remission since June 2010.
“I don’t think I’d be here without the trial,” he said.
A few months ago, Blish received results from a test he took last year at Stanford Medical Center showing no presence of antibodies in his blood. No antibodies means no cancer, and no cancer means “I can go just as fast on the bike as I used to,” Blish said.
It also means he and his wife can go wine tasting across the state and take that trip they meant to take in 2009 to Santa Barbara to spend time with family–activities that beat cleaning the attic any day.
