After Patrick Swayze passed away from complications of pancreatic canc3r, his wife Lisa Niemi Swayze, vowed to spread awareness about the silent k*ller.
Since his passing in 2009, Niemi Swayze has worked tirelessly to not only keep her late husband’s memory alive, but to w:ar:n others about the symptoms of pancreatic canc3r.
Patrick Swayze canc3r symptoms
“I still care and I know how tough Patrick’s and my journey was with this,” she said. “Canc3r may have taken him, but it didn’t beat him. And I’m continuing his fight for him.”
Swayze was diagnosed with canc3r in 2007.
Niemi Swayze, who remarried in 2014, said the actor’s first symptoms were yellow eyes and digestive problems.
”He came to me and he said, ‘Do my eyes look yellow?’” she told TODAY.
He wanted to wait to visit the doctor, but Niemi Swayze insisted they go the following day because “yellow eyes just doesn’t sound normal.”
”We went to the doctor and the moment he looked at him and saw what was going on, he sent us immediately for a CT scan.”
Patrick Swayze pancreatic canc3r
”Then we had a grueling 24 hours to wait while we got the reports back. It was a really tough time. Your life just turns on a dime,” she recalled.
Since pancreatic canc3r is one of the most difficult to treat, Niemi Swayze recalls most doctors prepared patients for the end. But the couple refused to accept the passing sentence.
”We fought it for as long as his body could. It was a tough journey, but it was worth it. When you love someone and they’re on this Earth with you, every moment is precious. Every bit of fight we did was worth it for that extra time.”
Patrick Swayze last words
Niemi stayed by her husband’s side in his final hours and can still recall the final words they shared with each other:
“My last words to Patrick? ‘I love you,’ and those were his last words to me,” she recalled.
“I lay back at Buddy’s side, I held his hand and felt his pulse again… And then he didn’t breathe any more.”
Last photo
Patrick Swayze’s widow, Lisa Niemi, received negative comments when deciding whether to share a deeply personal photograph of her late husband in her memoir.
The image, taken in the final days of Swayze’s life in 2009, shows the beloved actor frail, bald, and asleep as he neared the end of his battle with pancreatic canc3r.
