DI Morgan & Stephanie Bellon

Rolfe Pancreatic Cancer Foundation’s DASH for Detection generated a lot of activity in Elma, Washington, located approximately 85 miles from Seattle. Members of Team Anytime Fitness Grays Harbor were busy registering for their virtual team, under the leadership of Team Captains, DI Morgan and Stephanie Bellon.

As Owner and Manager of Anytime Fitness in Elma, Stephanie learned about Rolfe and the DASH for Detection from DI, a long-time gym member who has also become a close friend. Anytime Fitness has been virtual DASHing since 2023, and each year the team gets bigger and better.

“We do events both inside the club on our treadmills, as well as outside at our community park. For those team members that can’t make it the day of the event, we just make sure to gather everybody’s 5K time and it ends up being a really fun event,” DI noted.

 

DI’s and Stephanie’s Stories 

DI lost her younger sister Gloria Swan to Pancreatic Cancer 22 years ago at age 49. “She had been out to visit me and wasn’t feeling well. She went back home to Chicago and saw a gastroenterologist who thought she might have irritable bowel syndrome,” DI explained. When scans showed Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer, Gloria was admitted to the hospital for additional tests, expecting to be released a few days later.

That Mother’s Day was spent in the hospital with DI, Gloria’s mom and Gloria’s four children, who gave their mother a heart made up of four, separate pieces that fit together. On each piece of the heart was a word that described their mom – Strength, Wisdom, Love, Peace. Four days later, just 28 days after her diagnosis, Gloria passed away. “I still refer to it as our family’s fast-forward journey into hell,” DI noted. “It was terrifying and just heartbreaking, with an incredible feeling of helplessness.”

“Gloria was everything to our family, and we celebrate her all the time, to this day. She was loving, caring and a mom through and through.” A former business owner and manager, Gloria also helped to establish hockey leagues for girls in the State of Illinois. “She was committed to anything that she tried and had a passion for other people, especially kids.”

Stephanie also has personal reasons for participating this year, having recently lost a family friend to Pancreatic Cancer. “My friend was a very healthy, strong man, and all of a sudden he was gone.”

 

Connecting with Rolfe 

Following her death, Gloria’s family set up a foundation called Heeling with Every Step that raised funds for Pancreatic Cancer research. The organization, led by Gloria’s daughter, Stacia Hart, eventually merged with Rolfe Pancreatic Cancer Foundation to maximize their collective efforts and impact. Stacia now leads Rolfe as its Executive Director and remains committed to her family’s focus on early detection research to save more lives.

“The thing that people need to know about this disease is that it’s a silent cancer — by the time you get symptoms it’s too late to do anything about it. So, when we say that that early detection is the ball game, it really is,” stressed DI.

“Gloria was fun and beautiful, and just one of my favorite people,” DI noted. “I miss all of the times that we didn’t get to spend together, and I’d give anything for one more minute to tell her that.”

 

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