MADISON, Wis. — Here in Wisconsin, pancreatic cancer is the second leading cause of adult cancer death -- only to lung cancer.

Seventy-five-year-old survivor Susan Heneman hopes she can bring a little hope to an oftentimes difficult disease.

"I've been called unusual. I've been called an outlier and the data is kind of funny, but I've also learned, myself, not just as a survivor,” Heneman said about her journey. “But, as someone who's living proof that you can live a great life.”

From a nagging stomach ache to a stage IV diagnosis, she endured 28 rounds of chemotherapy, radiation and a biopsy of her liver.

Despite the odds, she beat the disease and will share her story as part of UW Health's Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Gathering.

"I think just sharing the idea that I know how that feels,” she said about participating. “That happened to me too. I was there, and this really helped  me to feel useful again.”

Meanwhile, UW Health Radiation Oncologist Dr. Zach Morris hopes his speech can educate so many on the incredible research being done for pancreatic cancer inside the Carbone Cancer Center.

"Testing some approaches where we might be able to basically draw a patient's blood, isolate their immune cells, outside of the body, and treat them there, basically to activate them, expand them, and then re-infuse the patient with their own immune cells," Dr. Morris said.

Through targeted radiation, the goal is to give those immune cells a fighting chance in a hard to reach spot.

"We're finding that radiation therapy can actually help those immune cells target back to the area that we radiate so we can guide them and away with our radiation treatments to home back into the pancreatic tumor," Dr. Morris explained.

You can learn more about the free Zoom event, from 4-6 p.m. Thursday, here.