Mark your calendars for the November 19 event, “Worth Fighting for a Cure: A Luncheon with Guest Speaker Lisa Niemi Swayze and Honoring Grateful Patient Jeff Kole.” The luncheon and program will raise funds to benefit patient care and pancreatic cancer research at the Curtis and Elizabeth Anderson Cancer Institute at Memorial University Medical Center.

The program will feature film industry veteran Lisa Niemi Swayze, author of the book Worth Fighting For, which chronicles her final months with her husband of 34 years, the late actor Patrick Swayze. Swayze fought a very public battle with pancreatic cancer and died in 2009. Now, Lisa Niemi Swayze is the national spokesperson for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, working to bring attention to this particularly deadly form of cancer.

Jeff Kole is president of Kole Management Company, a Savannah-based and family-owned property management and investment firm.  Kole, 55, a former pancreatic cancer patient, has been cancer-free for more than four years.

Lisa Niemi Swayze began her career as a classically trained dancer. She has held acting roles on television, film, and stage, and has also written, directed, and produced in the film and television industry and for the stage. In addition to Worth Fighting For, she co-wrote with Swayze The Time of My Life, his 2009 memoir.

The event is split into two separately ticketed events, both at the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort and Spa. A VIP reception and book signing with Niemi Swayze will run from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., and the luncheon will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $150 for the reception/book signing and $100 for the luncheon.  A variety of sponsorship opportunities are available. For more information, contact Beth Bethune, events and fundraising manager for the Memorial Health Foundation, at 912-350-1524 or [email protected], or visit www.memorialhealth.com/WorthFightingFor.

Media sponsors are the Savannah Morning News, WTOC TV, and iHeartRadio’s WTKS and 98.7 The River.