Following Patrick Swayze’s death from pancreatic cancer complications, his wife, Lisa Niemi Swayze, promised to raise awareness about the silent killer.

Since his passing in 2009, Niemi Swayze has worked relentlessly to not only honor her late husband’s memory but also to raise awareness about the signs of pancreatic cancer.

“I still care, and I know how tough Patrick’s and my journey was with this,” she told me. “Cancer may have killed him, but it did not defeat him. “And I’ll continue to fight for him.”

Swayze was diagnosed with cancer in 2007 and died less than two years later.

Niemi Swayze, who remarried in 2014, stated that the actor’s initial symptoms were yellow eyes and intestinal issues.

“He came to me and said, ‘Do my eyes look yellow?'” she told TODAY.

He wanted to wait to see the doctor, but Niemi Swayze insisted on going the next day since “yellow eyes just don’t sound normal.”

“We went to the doctor, and the moment he looked at him and saw what was going on, he sent us immediately for a CT scan.”

“Then we had a tough 24-hour wait for the reports. It was a terribly difficult moment. “Life can change suddenly,” she recalled.

An endoscopic procedure revealed that Swayze had pancreatic cancer.

Because pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult to treat, Niemi Swayze recalls that most doctors prepped patients for death. However, the pair refused to accept the death sentence.

“We struggled for as long as his body allowed. It was a difficult road, but it was worth it. When you love someone and they are still on this planet with you, every minute counts. Every struggle we had was worth the additional time.”

Many people believed that Swayze died as a result of his continued smoking habit. Throughout his cancer treatment, Swayze continued to work and smoke.

“I’ve seriously cut down,” Patrick told Barbara Walters. “I was one of those foolish ones that began back in the Marlboro Man days, which was cool. I am a cowboy. But let me tell you one thing. I will speak out strongly against smoking for children. That’s why I’ve never smoked in front of youngsters.

However, according to his doctor, this was not the case. Instead, he considered Swayze’s survival of the illness for up to two years as “quite an accomplishment.”

“I think at the point that one is already diagnosed with cancer, there’s little additional harm in it,” Dr. Fisher told me. “And if it — it seems to provide him some comfort or partly an identity of who he is, I certainly have no objections to that.”

Patrick Swayze died on September 14, 2009, twenty months after being diagnosed with cancer. Prior to his death, Patrick bought a house for his mother and paid her a monthly stipend, which his wife, Lisa, continued. He also bequeathed his $40 million wealth to his wife.

Niemi stood at her husband’s side in his dying hours and recalled the last words they shared:

“My last words to Patrick? ‘I love you,’ and those were his last words to me,” she remembered later.

“I lay back by Buddy’s side, clutched his hand, and checked his pulse again.” And then he stopped breathing.”

Since then, Niemi Swayze has worked to raise awareness about the rare but fatal condition.

Since 2010, she has worked with the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and lobbied for increased research funding on Capitol Hill.

“Just because Patrick passed on … didn’t mean that fight was over, and I was carrying that on for him,” she told me.

Patrick Swayze’s widow, Lisa Niemi, had to make a difficult decision about whether to use a profoundly intimate portrait of her late husband in her biography.

The shot, taken in the final days of Swayze’s life in 2009, shows the beloved actor weak, bald, and sleeping as he concluded his pancreatic cancer struggle.

Niemi had no intention of ever utilizing the shot, but as she worked on her book, Worth Fighting For: Love, Loss, and Moving Forward, she became pulled to it. She finally chose to incorporate it, despite her doubts that Swayze, known for his pride and power, would have agreed.

Niemi spoke with Entertainment Tonight on January 3, 2012, the day she placed the photo online, and she discussed her tough decision.

“Being sick wasn’t always the most dignified-looking thing, and Patrick was a man with a lot of pride,” she told me. Despite her doubts, she believed the vision conveyed a fundamental truth. “It was the truth,” she replied firmly, realizing their shared fragility and reality as they dealt with his condition.

Lisa Niemi Swayze’s efforts to raise awareness about this dreadful disease are well-needed. It’s critical to recognize the early indications of pancreatic cancer, especially because it’s such a challenging illness to cure.