10 WHO INSPIRE
Lisa Niemi Swayze
Searching for a Cure
When actor Patrick Swayze was diagnosed with pancreatic
cancer in January 2008, he knew he didn’t have long to live.
“My husband said, ‘I’m a dead man,’ ” recalls Lisa Niemi Swayze,
54, an author, choreographer, and director in her own right.
Today, a year after Swayze’s death at 57, Niemi Swayze is a
spokesperson for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network,
working tirelessly to raise awareness of the disease that kills
37,000 Americans each year. Invoking the memory of her
beloved husband of 34 years, she is a public speaker and lends
her name to mailings and fund-raising. She’s also working to
help pass federal legislation that will funnel more research
dollars to pancreatic cancer, which is among the lowest fund-
ed of all cancers. Her dream is to see Swayze’s name attached
to a breakthrough drug for pancreatic cancer. “If his illness and
my work have anything to do with a meaningful treatment for
this disease, I would consider it the best thing I’ve ever done,”
she says. “I know Patrick would hold that in higher regard than
his entire acting career.”—Jeanne Dorin Mc Dowell
OPPOSITE: PHOTOGRAPH OF MAYA ANGELOU BY PATRICK SCHNEIDER
56 AARP THE MAGAZINE
