“My Dedo’s yellow”: the words that changed everything for Naum
At a family birthday dinner, Naum’s granddaughter had spotted something no one else had noticed. His eyes and skin had turned yellow.
"My Dedo's yellow," she said. "His eyes are yellow."
Naum's daughter had arrived late. She looked across at her dad and felt it in her stomach straight away.
Until that year, Naum had barely needed a doctor. A fitter and turner and joiner by trade, he walked every day and took one tablet for blood pressure. He had also been his wife's carer twice: through non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the early 1990s, and through breast cancer around 25 years later, which led him to retire earlier than he'd planned. He knew exactly what cancer asks of a family.
Within days of the dinner, he was in hospital undergoing further tests and diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Now, it was his turn to need his family around him.
Signs that were easy to explain away
In June 2023, Naum had a knee replacement. Recovery was hard. He lost weight, but with his knee keeping him still, that seemed to make sense. He had pain in his upper abdomen, and scans at his local hospital in early July came back clear. Then came weeks of intense itching, put down to other causes.
After the birthday dinner, Naum wanted to wait a fortnight for his own GP to return from holiday. When his daughter finally told him what the family could see, he asked, "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" They went straight to emergency.
Naum was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on 16 October 2023.
"The carpet just gets pulled out from under you," his daughter says.
A plan, and a family around him
After Naum’s diagnosis, there was news to hold onto: the cancer hadn’t spread. A stent cleared the blockage causing his jaundice, and a surgeon recommended by a friend saw him in hospital. His care team recommended chemotherapy first, to shrink the tumour away from a major blood vessel so surgery could go ahead.
His daughter became the researcher, learning about treatment, side effects and life after a Whipple. She was trying to understand what was normal, what wasn’t and what might come next - while finding ways to share what she learnt without overwhelming her dad.
Around Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month that November, her searches led her to Pankind and the wider pancreatic cancer community.
Eight cycles of chemotherapy were rough, but Naum had family around him.
“If it wasn’t for all of you, I wouldn’t be here today,” he tells them.
On 10 April 2024, Naum underwent a Whipple procedure, major surgery to remove the tumour. After two weeks in hospital and some complications, he came home to continue his recovery.
Living with what comes after
Getting through treatment was only part of the challenge.
Naum still finds it hard to put on weight, he developed neuropathy from chemotherapy and continues to live with pain. He has also had to learn how to manage digestion and pancreatic enzymes.
For his daughter, she learnt about the timing of enzymes, the side effects that could follow surgery and the small changes that might make everyday life easier.
Sometimes, helping meant not sharing every piece of information at once, but translating it into something useful at the moment her dad needed it. She also found online communities where people shared their experiences of pancreatic cancer and Whipple surgery. Everyone’s experience was different, but hearing from others navigating similar questions sometimes helped.
For Naum, recovery has meant learning to navigate a changed life and finding ways to live well within it
Finding his way forward
His scans are good. The bad days are becoming fewer.
Naum walks every day. A poet and president of his local Macedonian literary group, he has continued writing, published another collection of poetry and is working on his life story. Some of his recent poems look towards the future and reflect what he has been through.
He is also thinking about travelling back to Macedonia, a place that has long been an important part of his life.
Life looks different now. But it is a life with plans, purpose and more time with the people he loves.
For his daughter, that is something very real to hold onto.
“It’s not just hope, it’s reality for my dad.”
Walking together
This year Naum and his family will join Canberra’s Put Your Foot Down walk for the first time.
When his family suggested it, Naum’s response was:
“Where do I get my purple T-shirt from?”
Nearly three years after his daughter first found Pankind while searching for answers, the family will walk alongside a community that understands.
For her, the walk is about showing her dad he isn't alone. It's also about progress. In the 1990s, her mum took part in a lymphoma clinical trial for a treatment that is still used today. She has seen what research can do for a cancer once it gets attention, and she wants a pancreatic cancer diagnosis that doesn't look "so grim before you even start".
A community that understands
Naum’s story is not every family’s story.
At Put Your Foot Down, some people walk in memory of someone they love. Some are facing pancreatic cancer now. Others are learning to live with what comes after.
Whatever brings them there, the message is the same: you are not alone.
Pankind is fighting to close the funding gap that holds pancreatic cancer research back, and every walker, donor and story moves that work forward.
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.