Marci Czel, a long-time supporter and fundraiser with Project Purple, is getting back into physical fundraising events after putting a halt to her distance running due to past injuries.
Marci participated in the largest HYROX event to date in the US, on May 31st in New York City, to fundraise for Project Purple. Marci has been fundraising with Project Purple since 2011, when her mom was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer.
Marci’s mom, Jeanne Czel, was a healthy and active 64-year-old when she was diagnosed. A strong fighter, she tragically passed away three years after diagnosis, when 6 months was the survival rate for her diagnosis.
However, Jeanne didn’t let her diagnosis slow her down. While going through rigorous chemotherapy, she willed herself to continue to live her life in as many respects as she had before. A life filled with quality interactions with family and friends, hard work, adventurous spirit, and fun.
Even after diagnosis, she maintained her joy of travel and visited Italy twice, London for the 2012 Summer Olympics, and participated in charity bike rides with Smilow Cancer Hospital, where she was being treated.
Throughout her life, Jeanne made meaningful connections with everyone she met and made sure they felt loved and supported. This came back to her twofold by the outpouring of love and support from her close friends and family, and her business community.
Interested in participating in HYROX, triathlons, or any event where Project Purple has no formal team? You can still fundraise through our Pioneer Program. Click here to learn more.
Life Before Diagnosis
Marci describes her mom as someone who was everyone’s biggest cheerleader; somebody who even your friends felt supported and loved by. Jeanne could connect with people, whether they were a part of her family or someone she had just met.
She especially never missed a chance to support Marci and her brother, and even post-diagnosis, cheered Marci on in Tampa, FL, during the St. Anthony’s Triathlon, was on the sidelines in Maryland for Marci’s last full marathon, and in New York City for countless full and half marathons. She was the ultimate support staff!!
Even before her diagnosis, Jeanne always said that every day was a gift. “I think that’s one of the things that has certainly lived inside of me and one that has always inspired me and motivated me to be somebody who participates in and gives back to the world.”
Jeanne was diagnosed with stage four cancer at 64 years old. At the time of her diagnosis, both Jeanne and her husband were retiring, selling their small business, a marina and boat dealership in Westbrook, Connecticut.
Jeanne still wanted to work, semi-retired, as a salesperson with the new owners, as she wasn’t ready to fully step away from a business she grew and one she felt passionate about. She also loved to travel and wanted more time to do so in this new chapter of her life.
Unfortunately, her diagnosis put a halt to these plans due to her rigorous treatment plan, and Jeanne was not able to continue working. While fully retiring presented her with its own processing, so did a diagnosis with no cure. However, Jeanne approached this like she did everything else in life, with positivity and perseverance.
Throughout treatment, she still found a way to do things with the people who brought her joy. She was frustrated that the treatment made her feel horrible and bound her to the couch for weeks at a time. But even stage 4 cancer was no match for her grit and resolve.
She managed to fulfill her passion for travel and did so frequently by going on a mother-daughter friend trip to the Virgin Islands, to Italy, to Florida to celebrate her Mom’s 88th birthday, and even took a cruise around Europe, all post-diagnosis and while undergoing treatment.
“She has just always been that kind of person who is determined and stubborn when needed, and that helped her in this regard.”
In hindsight, Jeanne was grateful for the timing of when she decided to retire and sell their business. Not only would that have taken energy from her ability to fight this cancer, but it also allowed her to apply what energy she had left after treatment to focus on living life to the fullest.
A Strong Battle with Pancreatic Cancer
For Jeanne, the diagnosis wasn’t a long process. She was diagnosed on July 20, 2011, with stage four pancreatic cancer, which had metastasized to her liver and stomach. Marci says her mom didn’t have many symptoms that initially raised concerns; she just felt off and what she described as acid reflux.
“I remember having a conversation with her where she was kind of joking, like, ‘Oh, this must be what old people get, ‘ referencing the acid reflux and some cramping, chalking it up to a heavy Southern meal she enjoyed while in North Carolina during a golf tournament.”
In the weeks following, Jeanne went to her primary care provider after experiencing persistent acid reflux. Soon after, she was referred to a GI specialist, where she was diagnosed and began treatment at Smilow Cancer Hospital with Dr. Hochster.
However, before beginning chemotherapy, they had to insert a stent endoscopically to open up her digestive system and eliminate the bile buildup that started to occur due to the tumor’s position against her gallbladder. On Aug 5, 2011, she began her first chemo treatment.
“Every two weeks, she went for chemo (FULFIRINOX), and she felt pretty horrible for probably ten of those fourteen days and then would do it all over again,” Marci shares. “Before every two-week treatment, she would get her blood drawn and meet with Dr. Hochster to discuss how she was feeling. He had the most incredible nurse, Karen, who I still speak to to this day.”
“My Mom and I share the same birthday, which has always been a special badge we carry, and we were thrilled to learn that Karen also shared our birthday. This realization of Mom’s first treatment gave her comfort, and their connection and friendship took off!”
Jeanne’s treatment was a full day of chemo intravenously via her port at the hospital with Karen, and then she would be sent home with the “chemo pump” for 48 more hours of active chemotherapy.
Early on in her diagnosis, Jeanne was frustrated and thought about how she was a healthy person who had taken care of her body her whole life…why did her body betray her like this?
“That didn’t last very long,” Marci explains how her mom had always been
a realist and an optimist. “It sort of shifted more towards this is the body that’s going to help me fight this and get through this really rigorous treatment. She was super positive.”
After about 7 months of chemo, her second CT scan post-treatment revealed that her tumors had shrunk about 75%! This was a great sign, and while her team wanted to continue the course, her oncologist reduced the oxaliplatin moving forward (one of four drugs that make up FOLFIRINOX), which was causing her the most side effects. On May 17, 2012, her third scan showed 90-95% remission, and her oncologist promised a break from treatment after 1-2 more months.
On July 11, 2022, nearly one year after diagnosis, Jeanne was deemed in remission, meaning she was able to take a break from her treatment.
Remission showed Jeanne signs of hope and healing until her symptoms started to worsen again, and she had to start back on her regimen on Oct. 29, 2012. “FOLFIRINOX did work, and it worked for a while, and then it stopped working, which is what many of these treatments do,” Marci told us. “Her approach was, okay, this body that I felt totally abandoned me and let me down is actually what’s going to help me fight this and get through it.”
By Feb 2013, the treatment had proven to shrink the tumors that had reared their head again. This positive momentum thrilled Jeanne ahead of Marci’s wedding in May. She felt energetic and beautiful for all the wedding festivities in New York City.
Sadly, that momentum slowed towards the end of 2013 when her scans were stable, but not improving. In Jan 2014, her scans showed tumor markers increasing, and therefore her tumors were growing. Her team was forced to adjust her treatment plan.
In February 2014, Jeanne was prescribed different chemo treatments starting with Albraxane, causing her to lose her hair, which was really difficult for her at first, but in her usual glass-half-full approach, she embraced it.
Jeanne lived three years after her diagnosis, sadly passing away on July 23, 2014. During this time, Marci was trying to get pregnant with her first son. Marci finally got pregnant not long after her mom passed, with her due date being July 23, 2015, the first anniversary of her mom’s passing.
For Marci, this was one of the first very clear signs she got from her mom, and she believes that those signs happen all of the time. “I feel her so deeply inside me, but also around me too,” she tells us.
“Being able to be open to those signs and feel and see them really makes me strongly believe that those who have passed on before us are still with us in some capacity, and that’s just them living on in a different way.”
Staying Active For Herself and A Cause
Marci feels that she and her mom share many characteristics. “I think many people would say that we’re very much alike in the way that we always lead with empathy, humor, and candor, give people the benefit of the doubt, and build connections with those around us…”
To Marci, that’s the most important part about having connections with others: “At the end of the day, that’s what we’re going to remember, how we make people feel. I’m proud that she instilled that in me.”
Marci also feels that she inherited some of her mom’s athletic abilities. Jeanne grew up playing on her high school’s basketball team, representing the women as one of the early players, back when it was common to wear a skirt to play. Marci also recalls her mom running in a lot of road races while she was growing up.
This love for being active has contributed to how both Marci and her mom have been able to help fundraise and bring light to pancreatic cancer.
While Jeanne was undergoing chemotherapy, she participated in two charity bike rides with Marci. This was really important for both Marci and Jeanne, as it was something that they were able to do together for a good cause. Jeanne rode 25 miles in 2012 and 2013 during her FOLFIRINOX treatment to raise funds for Smilow Cancer Hospital, where she received such incredible care.
“It was impressive. Anybody who was on FOLFIRINOX knows that it wipes you out. I don’t know how she did it.”
From there, Marci decided she wanted to continue to combine her athletic abilities with fundraising. Marci found Project Purple in 2011 and has been participating in fundraising events ever since then, including her first event with Project Purple, the NYC Half Marathon in 2012.
Marci has participated in various fundraising events with Project Purple: NYC Half Marathons in 2014, 2015, 2016, to name a few, along with Smilow Closer to Free races in 2012, 2013, 2014, and so on.
Fundraising through HYROX
On May 31, Marci participated in the largest HYROX event to date in a women’s double with a close friend, Janette Chin. The event took place in New York City with roughly 50,000 participants. Marci decided to participate in her first HYROX event ever since some friends who had participated in them encouraged her, and her recent workout plan was strength-based.
“I really missed the idea of having a goal like a half-marathon, being able to fundraise for that event, and have it mean something to attach it to an organization that I feel really strongly about.”
Marci found HYROX as an excellent opportunity to apply this training and fundraising style to her new fitness endeavours.
HYROX is an endurance and strength event that can be done in various capacities with eight different stations: skiing, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmers carry, sandbag lunges, and wall ball. In between the stations, participants run 0.6 miles.
Marci has been fundraising with Project Purple in some way every year since 2011. Within the past few years, Marci hasn’t been running due to some injuries, but she learned about the Pioneer Program at Project Purple and decided to fundraise in a new way.
“My thought was, I feel very strongly about making sure that I have a concerted effort to fundraise for Project Purple every single year, so why can’t I just marry it to this HYROX event?”
To prep for this event, Marci didn’t have to change too much about what she was doing, as her workout style has become more strength- and flexibility-focused. She increased her HIIT workouts and added running in the 6 weeks leading up to the event.
Finding Connections
Marci says, like her mom, she’s a doer. “I am somebody who wants to feel like they can have some sort of control over something that’s going on. Being able to continue my participation in this way was really important to me, and it just felt natural.” Being active and being able to do something helps Marci in situations like this, where she feels helpless.
“I was doing it not just for my mom but for all of those families touched by this cancer because it’s all heartbreaking in various ways. So many of us are touched by cancer in some capacity, but the fact that this one is as deadly as it is and can really flip people’s lives upside down. I wanted to do what I could to participate.”
What motivates Marci more than anything is her connection to Jeanne. Doing HYROX events, marathons, and fundraising with Project Purple are more connection points to who Jeanne was and what she enjoyed doing.
“Anything that I can do that, in my mind, I know she would enjoy… or just be so excited about me being a part of, makes me happy,” Marci told us. “This is just one of those things that I know for a fact she would probably be like, ‘I want to do one of those with you!’”
If you’d like to run or participate in an event of your own for Project Purple, visit our events page.
Like Marci, if you would like to participate in a new event where Project Purple may not have a team, check out our Pioneer Program.
