The Louise Davie Charitable Trust is the official charity of the 2025 Emerson’s Dunedin Marathon.
Founded in memory of Louise Davie by her family, including her husband Steve Davie, the trust raises funds for pancreatic cancer research.
Mr Davie said his wife was a lifelong nurse, working the last 20 years of her career in the gastroenterology department at Dunedin Hospital.
In 2020, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and, after a two and a-half-year battle, died in December 2022.
The trust was set up in her memory to support earlier diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
"The trust has been set up with her name, but it is really for everyone who has been diagnosed."
Pancreatic cancer is a "hell of a disease" that is difficult to detect because there are no major symptoms until it has advanced.
"The problem with pancreatic cancer is that there is no sign until it is too late.
Early signs might be fatigue, a sore back or unexplained weight loss.
"They are vague symptoms that don't present until they have spread."
Pancreatic cancer has a five-year survival rate under 10%, significantly lower than most other cancers.
Most die within 12 months of diagnosis.
Raising funds to uncover an early diagnostic marker could help improve treatment and survival outcomes.
The trust recently gave $600,000 to the University of Otago Foundation Trust to support research led by Department of Pathology Associate Prof Aniruddha Chatterjee to develop an early detection test for pancreatic cancer.
"Early detection is the key and that is what the research is looking to do."
"We want to get that early diagnostic marker so we can just turn it into another cancer.
"Whereas at the moment, most people that are diagnosed, it is palliative care only."
Louise Davie’s son, Tom Davie, said his mother was kind and pragmatic.
"Full of good logic and very sharp wit, she was just lovely."
Before she died, the family discussed setting up a trust to help improve survival rates.
"I reckon she would probably be slightly embarrassed that it was under her name, because she was really humble."
But she would be pleased that research on early detection was progressing with help from the trust’s fundraising.
"She would be stoked that it was happening, it is just unfortunate that it took what happened to her to get it going."
• To give, visit louisedavietrust.com.
Marathon momentum
As runners get ready to sweat at Emerson’s Dunedin Marathon, organisers say entries are surging and the event is set to be even bigger and better.
Race director Becs Adlam said the team could not wait to welcome locals and visitors to Dunedin on Sunday, September 14.
"The marathon is shaping up to be a fantastic celebration of community and endurance.
"Good luck to everyone with their final weeks of training, and if you haven’t entered yet, now’s the time!"
