LISTEN: Heartbroken woman talks about losing mum to pancreatic cancer
It is World Pancreatic Cancer Day and in a bid to raise awareness iconic buildings across Scotland will be lit up in the charity's adopted colour purple
Buildings across Scotland will be lit up purple today to mark World Pancreatic Cancer Day.
The campaign is part of a global initiative led by the World Pancreatic Cancer Coalition to raise awareness about the devastating disease.
Pancreatic Cancer Scotland says according to a worldwide survey sixty percent of people asked said they knew "almost nothing" about pancreatic cancer.
The cancer is very difficult to detect and those diagnosed and every day an estimated 1,006 people worldwide are diagnosed and an estimated 985 die from it.
40 year old mum-of-four Debbie Baker's mother Margaret Douglas died from the disease, she speaks to our Chief Reporter Linda Sinclair.
Pancreatic cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer according to figures from 2014 accounting for 5% of all cancer deaths with experts predicting it could become the second most common.
“While we’ve seen continued improvement in survival rates among most major cancers in the past decade, the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer has remained unchanged for nearly 50 years,” said Ali Stunt, World Pancreatic Cancer Day chair.
“Global awareness is the first step to demand more research funding and develop better resources to improve patient outcomes.”
People are being encouraged to raise awareness by wearing purple and taking to social media to share photos with the hashtags #WPCD and #InItTogether
More information can be found here:
You can also learn more about the campaign by going to Facebook and typing in World Pancreatic Cancer Day