June 30, 2009 Diagnosed with cancer, Berkson trains for PMC Play video

(NECN: Latoyia Edwards, Framingham, Mass.) - Craig Berkson has dropped 40 unhealthy pounds, he can a bike a hundred miles in one day, and one would never guess he has a cancerous tumors on his liver.

Craig and his family were having fun at a bar mitzvah party four years ago, when pancreatic cancer unexpectedly showed up.

"It was cocktail time and just talking to some friends and kind of felt a little bit lightheaded and basically passed out at the party my heart rate was really racing," Craig said.

"My dad was lying on the ground kind of in the doorway it was kind of traumatic," his son, Michael, said.

"The first thing that went through my head is is my dad going to die," daughter Alyssa said.

Craig's children were just sevent and ten when the family first learned he had a fist sized tumor growing on top of his pancreas.

At age 39, the IBM consultant went from no symptoms to a grueling emergency surgery.

"It's a 12 and half hour procedure they took out head of my pancreas part of my stomach and my gallbladder and reconstructed the vein into my liver," Craig said. "It's a major major surgery. I mean I was there for over 3 weeks recovering after."

Despite surgery, the cancer spread to Craig's liver.

"It is better than the usual pancreatic cancer. And its not uncommon for people to live beyond 5 years which is often the cutoff for other kinds of cancer," Dr. Kulke said. "Nevertheless over the longer term it can

Craig Berkson feels fortunate that he has a slow-growing form of cancer, but because his tumors are scattered throughout his liver- doctors have decided surgery and other treatments like chemotherapy would not be effective right now-- there is no known cure for craig's illness"

Craig has few treatment options, so he's decided to take part in a clinical trial at dana farber cancer institute in Boston. Craig is being treated with a drug called pazopennim.

Craig doesn't mind the once a month appointments with the dana farber research team, he says the only side effect of his clinical drug trial is high blood pressure.

And that's where the Pan Mass Challenge charity bicycle ride for cancer comes in.

Since signing up and training to ride the Pan Mass Challenge, Craig has been able to cut back on medication..

Staci's search for ways to keep her husband physically strong led her to the Pan Mass Challenge and the Carcinoid Cares Team, which rides to raise money to treat Craig's rare form of cancer.

"People who I thought might have given maybe 25 or 50 dollars were giving a hundred dollars 250 dollars," Craig said.

The generosity of donors stunned Craig he raised more than $14,000 during his first PMC ride. This year, Craig is biking 192-mile in the Pan Mass Challenge.

"There's no way you can actually get prepared for the emotional experience of riding," Craig said. "You've got pictures of people and people yelling thank you."

Craig feels empowered by the PMC because he is raising money, and directly giving back to the life saving medical treatment that he receives at Dana Farber.

His children say the experience has taught them valuable lessons.

"Not everything is as horrible as it immediately seems and there's always a way to make something better," Michael said. "Even though he has cancer. He's not just letting it stop him."

Determined to successfully fundraiser even in this tight economy, Craig Berkson has secured $9,000 in donations so far for cancer research.