For 10 years, Karen and her Perk Up With Me Mobile Coffee van have been a familiar sight at Pankind’s Perth Put Your Foot Down walk.
When she first started supporting the walk, around 150 people gathered in purple. A decade later, Karen has watched that community grow to around five times its size. This year serving nearly 700 Pankind walkers.
Year after year, Karen has poured coffee for the growing sea of purple and donated thousands of dollars from her sales to support pancreatic cancer research.
But for Karen, it has never really been about the coffee.
It’s about keeping a promise she made to her mum.
The story behind the promise
In 2013, Karen’s mum was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Soon afterwards, Karen herself became unwell while overseas. When she returned to Perth, she was sent for an ultrasound and mentioned her family history of pancreatic cancer to her GP. That conversation prompted an extra check of Karen’s pancreas and doctors discovered a two-centimetre tumour.
Without discussing her family history, Karen may never have thought to ask about her own pancreas. Early detection meant there were more treatment options available - something Karen knows she was incredibly fortunate to experience.
Karen underwent major surgery and spent nine weeks in hospital recovering. Throughout it all, her focus was on getting well enough to be there for her mum.
“I needed to survive so I could help with Mum’s care,” she says.
Her experience has left Karen with a strong understanding of just how much early detection can matter, and why greater awareness and research into pancreatic cancer are so important.
A promise to Mum
Karen had only recently started her coffee business when pancreatic cancer turned her life upside down.
It would be a year before she was finally well enough to return to work.
On her first day back, her mum passed away.
Karen made her a promise to her mum: she would do whatever she could to help raise money for pancreatic cancer research.
Not long afterwards, Karen reached out to what is now Pankind and offered to bring her coffee van to the Perth Put Your Foot Down walk and donate money from her coffee sales.
The business Karen had fought so hard to return to became one of the ways she could keep that promise.
“I just want to do everything that I can because that’s the promise that I made to my mother”
Every cup makes a difference
Karen has now been supporting Pankind and the Perth Put Your Foot Down walk for 10 years. Each year, she kindly donates her profits to Pankind and has raised thousands for pancreatic cancer research.
Over the last decade, she has formed friendships, watched the community grow and seen hundreds more people turn up in purple to support the cause.
“You can see the growth of the numbers just go up and up. It’s amazing.”
And Karen shares our hope for the future: to see the Perth walk continue to grow, bringing even more people together to raise awareness and support everyone impacted by pancreatic cancer.
More than a cup of coffee
Karen knows how fortunate she was to have her tumour found when it was. After surviving pancreatic cancer herself and losing her mum to the disease, she has spent the past 10 years doing what she can to help others.
That support goes far beyond the Perth Put Your Foot Down walk. Through her coffee van, Karen raises funds, shares her story and starts conversations about pancreatic cancer with the people she meets every day.
A purple Pankind donation bucket sits on her counter and often prompts questions.
“If it helps one person, then I’m happy.”
People like Karen are at the heart of Pankind. They don’t just support our events, they help spread awareness, advocate for pancreatic cancer research and make the cause part of their everyday lives.
For Karen, that means continuing to show up, helping shed more light on pancreatic cancer and continuing to keep the promise she made to her mum.
We’re so grateful to Karen, and to everyone in our community who supports Pankind in their own way.
Could pancreatic cancer run in your family?
If you have a family history of pancreatic cancer, understanding your inherited risk can be an important first step. Explore our resources on family history, genetic risk and what you can do if pancreatic cancer has affected your family.
