10/25/2026
Family #2 and the journey…
Kristin is just 36 years old, a wife, a mother, and someone whose life has been turned upside down by a pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Kristin and Matt for many years, dating all the way back to our volleyball days. Knowing them personally makes sharing their story that much more meaningful, and seeing what they’re going through truly hits close to home.
It all started this spring with what seemed like ordinary back pain. Kristin thought it was simply from gardening or something she had strained. She tried everything she could think of to find relief, from chiropractic visits to acupuncture, never imagining that the pain could be a sign of something so much more serious.
Then one morning, Kristin woke up with a feeling that something just wasn’t right. But like so many of us would, she pushed through and continued on with her day, hoping it was nothing. The very next morning, she woke up jaundiced, a frightening change that ultimately led to the heartbreaking discovery that she had pancreatic cancer.
Kristin is now facing 12 rounds of chemotherapy, with her fourth treatment scheduled for October 26. The treatments have been long, exhausting, and incredibly difficult.
During the first week of November, she’ll undergo another scan. The hope is that chemotherapy is shrinking the tumor and that surgery may eventually become an option.
Through it all, Kristin and Matt are doing their best to navigate the unimaginable while maintaining a sense of normalcy for their children.
As her family shared, pancreatic cancer often goes undetected because it isn’t something routinely screened for, especially at such a young age. What started as ordinary back pain turned into a diagnosis that changed everything.
