Peggy Ohl knows she won’t be the one to cure pancreatic cancer. But she knows how she can help those affected by the disease.
Since 2019, the Ohl Strong Foundation has given $92,500 to individuals and families living with pancreatic cancer. Working together with the Trinity Health Foundation, the foundation provides patients with $500 gift cards than can be used however they wish. The only requirements are that the patient must have a pancreatic cancer diagnosis and be able to provide documentation, and they must live within a 70-mile radius of the Trinity Rock Island campus. In Iowa, this includes the Quad Cities, as well as Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Dubuque. The foundation also works with the Genesis Cancer Center and the University of Iowa Cancer Center to provide assistance.
Peggy Ohl started the foundation in the wake of her husband Brent’s death from pancreatic cancer in 2016. Brent, who was an anesthesiologist with Trinity, was just 48 when he died from an aggressive form of the disease. Friends and neighbors rallied around her to help start the foundation.
Peggy said she’s grateful for those volunteers, who are still working hard to help affected families. To that end, the Foundation is gearing up for its annual tailgate fundraiser, this Saturday, Oct. 5, at Traditions Event Center in Eldridge. Doors open at 11 a.m., with a tailgate party prior to the Iowa-Ohio State game at 2:30 p.m. In addition to food and fun, there will also be raffles, including a 50/50, and a silent auction. Tricia and Darren Campbell and Dave and Krista McLaughlin have also donated a tent, so this year’s event will be indoors and out. All funds raised will be used to support the foundation.
But more than a fundraiser, the event is a chance to celebrate the recipients. Many current and former recipients, and families of those who have passed are expected to attend.
Peggy said that working with the foundation not only taught her about gratitude, it also helped her find her voice. She encourages people to advocate for their health. Pancreatic cancer does not have a preventative screening, like breast or colon cancer. In fact, many of the symptoms of pancreatic cancer are similar to other diseases. And for most people who are diagnosed, by the time they learn they have the disease, it is often advanced. That’s why Peggy encourages those who are experiencing symptoms to be diligent in pursuing answers about their care.
Some of the lessons Peggy says she’s learned have also passed on to her sons. While younger son Charlie is a senior this year, older son Tom graduated from North Scott and is now in college, where he has a job in cancer research at the University of Iowa.
Peggy said she’s also happy the foundation has a new way to help families: the Make a Memory grant. Families can apply for a special event, such as a trip together, that is separate from the gift cards.
“You feel like you’re not alone”
“It’s been awful. It’s a terrible disease, and there’s just not much you can do in most cases because you’re so far,” said Shala Mannoochahr of Bettendorf.
Mannoochahr is a nurse and coincidentally worked with Brent Ohl for several years prior to his passing. She recently found herself a beneficiary of the Ohl Strong Foundation.
She lived with symptoms, including back and stomach pain for “a year or two”, but didn’t think much of it. But eventually, “the pain got so severe, I had to figure out what was going on, because I couldn’t eat. I basically stopped eating, and my stomach pain was so bad, and I was just kind of having different things happening.” She found she couldn’t ignore the pain anymore and sought answers.
Her diagnosis came about a year ago.
“I’ve been very ill. This whole year has been kind of a blur.”
She had a biopsy at the University of Iowa, but doctors still weren’t sure about her diagnosis, and she was able to get an appointment with a surgeon at the Mayo Clinics in Rochester, Minn.
Mannoochahr’s tumor was found to be in the head of her pancreas and is also involved with the vascular system. The cancer was inoperable.
“I had so many questions and there were no answers,” she said. “I was just in shock because I had thought (surgery) would be an option. I just didn’t know a whole lot about pancreatic cancer, I hadn’t known a whole lot of people – really, I think the only person I had known was Dr. Ohl.”
Mannoochahr learned about the Ohl Strong Foundation from her employer.
“I knew who he was, and I worked with him, but I didn’t know all that (Peggy) had done and offered.”
Mannoochahr’s employer contacted the foundation, which she said has been “absolutely wonderful.” Although her treatment left her unable to attend many of the foundation’s events, she said she plans to attend Saturday’s fundraiser now that she has finished her treatment. “I’m excited. Even if I can’t stay long, I’m going to go to the tailgating party.”
Having the support of the Ohl Strong Foundation has been very meaningful to Mannoochahr.
“You feel like you have somebody that can relate, because they’ve been through it. You feel like you’re not alone. You have so much fear and anxiety about everything, because your whole life just changes. I was working full-time, very active, and my life changed like I ran into a brick wall. It stopped suddenly, and I couldn’t work, and they helped provide so much financially. They were able to give these gift cards, so that helped. I couldn’t work, and I thought, ‘How am I going to pay for these things? How am I going to live?’ I was having to go back and forth between Mayo, so they helped financially, very supportive with those cards to help with gas and hotels and stuff.”
She was also a recipient of a Make a Memory grant from the foundation.
“The one thing that really meant the most, not knowing how long I had, was being able to take my kids and immediate family to Florida and to spend time together in one house.”
Mannoochahr said she hopes more people become aware of the Ohl Strong Foundation and the ways that it can help. And she says it is a good way to carry on Dr. Ohl’s legacy.
“He was a funny guy and a very kind guy. I’m glad I was at least able to meet him.”
“An absolute blessing”
Robert Stewart lost his battle with pancreatic cancer on Aug. 29. But before his passing, he was able to take one last special trip with his family to Yellowstone National Park, thanks to the Ohl Strong Foundation.
“He was very much a man that loved the outdoors,” said his daughter, Sarah Scott. “He liked to fish and camp. In the summertime, we had fires probably at least four or five times a week. He very much loved to be with me and his other kids and his grandkids.” She added that he worked much of his life in construction. “He was a very, very strong man, for sure.”
Stewart learned his doctor suspected he had cancer in January of 2023, and the official diagnosis came in May of that year. “At that time, we were told six months. By the grace of God, he made it about 18 months,” said Scott.
Scott works at Cardiovascular Medicine in Davenport and learned about the Ohl Strong Foundation from one of the nurse-practitioners there.
“It was a huge blessing. Not only did Peggy Ohl reach out to us several times outside of the foundation to check on us and how we were doing. She lived near dad, and she was able to sit with him a couple of times. A lot of foundations that you hear about primarily give you money for medical expenses, which is great, but a lot of these people have very limited time to live. For us, it was an absolute blessing to accept a grant from them to take dad on a trip.
“My dad spent a lot of time working and just didn’t have funds to do a whole lot of travel. So, when he got sick, I said, ‘Daddy, where do you want to go? What do you want to see before you leave Earth?’ And he said, ‘I want to go to Florida, and I want to go to Yellowstone.’ And I said, ‘Well, those are two different directions, so let’s pick one.’ And he said, ‘I want to see Old Faithful.’”
Scott and her husband, Marc, along with her brother, Jake, joined Stewart on the trip to Yellowstone. “It was absolutely amazing. Without the money from the Ohl Foundation, with the amount of work I missed caring for him, I would never have been able to take him on a trip like this. Ever.”
Due to Stewart’s health, the group drove and were able to make many side trips along the way, including Devil’s Tower and the Badlands. “It was incredible having that time and giving him that gift of being able to see something that he always wanted to see and have that one-on-one time and not focus on the sickness. Not focus on the doctors and the chemo and all of those things, but just to focus on the trip and the time together and the laughter and the joy was absolutely a gift.”
Scott also encourages people to advocate for themselves when seeking treatment for pancreatic cancer.
“Don’t give up. Keep fighting. There are other options out there. There are other places. Keep doing your research. If you’re not comfortable with your doctor, ask for another doctor. I know when we started this journey, we started with a specific oncologist, and we were just not happy with the answers that we were getting necessarily. So we said, ‘We want to try somebody different.’ And I think that if we would have not advocated for ourselves, I think this would have been a much sooner outcome than as long as he lasted.
“To have a foundation and a doctor and a support system that speaks for you and advocates for you and is on your side and is rooting for you is absolutely amazing.”
To learn more about the Ohl Strong Foundation, including how you can donate, visit ohlstrong.org. For more information about Saturday’s tailgate, visit the Ohl Strong Facebook page.