How One Organization is Using CrossFit to Fight Pancreatic Cancer

The story.

Project Purple is a Connecticut-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a serious goal: to find a cure for pancreatic cancer and improve the lives of diagnosed patients. The foundation was founded in 2010 by Dino Verrelli after his father was diagnosed.

If you know anything about pancreatic cancer you know it’s bad news. Here’s a quick rundown: It’s the number three killer among major cancers, 75% will die within six months of diagnosis, and there are no early detection or curative treatments.

So what is Project Purple doing?

For starters, they’re an official charity partner of 18 different endurance races across the country and have been expanding into the CrossFit community since 2015. They created a badass workout to help raise awareness and funds for the cancer that is diagnosed every 86 seconds. Last year, 35 gyms registered for the event and raised more than $40,000.

That’s a lot of dough.

Yep, it sure is. The event is called Push Pull for Pancreatic Cancer and the workout looks pretty spicy.

For 2018, their goal is to get 100 boxes participating, raising more than $100,000 combined.

That’s legit. How can we help?

Gyms can host the event any day of the year for free — just create a team, program the AMRAP as your workout of the day, and let your athletes register online if they want to participate.

It’s only 25 bucks and can help put a huge dent in funding needed to fight this vicious diagnosis and help families everywhere.