Yankton resident Bob Willcockson still remembers the dark day in October 2009 when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

“First, it was disbelief when I found out,” he said. “Second is disappointment because it’s not a diagnosis that gives you much hope. The minute doctors say ‘pancreatic’ anything, your fate is pretty much sign, sealed and delivered right there.”

Willcockson went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. for treatment from a doctor who was trying something new and different.

“I went for a Phase One trial, which is the first time something has been tried in humans, so it borders on experimental,” he said. “Out of 36 people, I was the 17th in the trial. The doctor was using an old, ineffective drug in a brand new way to try and treat the cancer.”

He added that doctors never told him they thought the trial would work, but they thought it could extend his life for several more weeks or months.

“To me, just extending my life wasn’t worth participating in the trial,” Willcockson said. “When the doctor said that I’ll be helping other doctors and other pancreatic cancer patients in the future, I decided to participate.”

Of the 36 trial participants, five responded to the treatment, three lived — and Willcockson is the last surviving patient.

He added the trial treatment is part of the reason why he is still living today, despite only being given months to live when he was diagnosed in 2009. Willcockson has also had treatments from Dr. Mike Peterson at the Avera Sacred Heart Cancer Center in Yankton.

Despite the success of treatments, Willcockson said he will never forget his brush with death in April 2010.

“I was at Mayo Clinic and I knew I would have died,” he said. “The tumor lay over on my duodenum (located between the stomach and middle part of the small intestine). The doctor said he might be able to open the duodenum.”

After putting Willcockson under anesthesia, the doctor called Willcockson’s wife and said he did not know if it would work.

“The doctor told my wife that, if we put the stent in, it could blow out my stomach and I could die,” Willcockson said. “My wife made the decision to go ahead with the treatment, and, as it turns out, it didn’t blow my stomach out.”

In response to the need for more awareness and funding for pancreatic cancer, a group of the late Lori Groetken’s relatives is putting together a pancreatic cancer poker run pub crawl, slated for Saturday.

The event will begin with registration at Happy Hourz at 3:30 p.m. and features cash prizes for the top two poker hands, as well as the lowest hand. All of the money raised will go to the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University in St. Louis.

Marcy Moser and Deb Weddingfeld, who have been among the people planning the event, said they first got involved with events when Lori Groetken — Moser’s aunt and Weddingfeld’s sister-in-law — was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2009.

“Pretty much from the minute Lori was diagnosed, she said she’s going to fight the cancer and do what it takes to fight for awareness, a test for the cancer and a cure,” Moser said. “She started a grassroots effort by herself. She raised $25,000 with her first event, and $100,000 in her second event. She passed away after the second event, right before Christmas in 2011 in Bloomington, Ill.”

Moser added that there are a lot of Groetken’s extended family in Yankton, and ever since Lori started the events in 2009, Moser and Weddingfeld wanted to do an event with the Groetkens living in Yankton.

“That’s really where this all came from, and this is the event we decided to do,” she said. “It’s different from other fundraisers because we wanted to do something fun and something different.”

Willcockson said he is looking forward to this weekend’s activities.

“I’m looking forward to having a good time this weekend,” he said. “Raising money is a great thing. You can have all of that stuff, but you have to make the event fun, too.”

So far, around 35 people are pre-registered, and Weddingfeld said she hopes it becomes an event people can attend, communicate, share memories, look for support and bring more awareness to the table.

“Cancer has really become less of a stigma,” Weddingfeld said. “However, people do have a hard time talking about the tough times they go through in life, and we hope this event helps them talk about what’s going on.”

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal