ORANGE PARK – When he became a cop in his mid-twenties, Gary Carmichael donned a polished gold badge on his breast. Now 65, Carmichael carries a 12-inch scar on his belly as a reminder on his fight with pancreatic cancer.

Carmichael developed the hyper-aggressive cancer in the summer of 2009, but has since survived while others still are less fortunate.

Now retired Carmichael, gives up his time to mentor newly-diagnosed pancreatic cancer patients nationwide. Carmichael said it’s tough to fathom a disease many health professionals consider a “death sentence” if caught late term.

“Every November, I get emails from people sending me well wishes because they know I’m an anomaly when it comes to surviving pancreatic cancer, because the medical facts are … people that are discovered to have pancreatic cancer survive after 12 months,” Carmichael said.

The American Cancer Society estimates roughly 53,070 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2016, but only 11,290 will survive. November is pancreatic cancer awareness month, a time survivors and advocates use to educate others on the dangers of the disease.

Still, testing for pancreatic cancer comes with a hefty hospital bill. Most pancreatic cancer patients discover they have the disease through CAT scans, Carmichael said.

Carmichael, however, watched his body decline in ways he had never seen before, leading him to question his health. By his own admission, Carmichael had always been a large man hardened further by years of police service.

“I started losing weight to the tune of about 10 pounds a month without trying and I also started experiencing some acid reflux issues,” Carmichael said. “So after a month of this unusual behavior I went to a doctor – my primary care doctor – and he did some blood tests on me and did not identify any underlying issues that may have been causing it.”

After a month and another 10 pounds, he made an appointment with a gastroenterologist. In early September 2009, doctors discovered a tumor on the head of Carmichael’s pancreas.

“Admittedly, my wife and I had no idea,” Carmichael said. “I’ve heard of lung cancer, breast cancer, skin cancer, but I had no idea what pancreatic cancer was.”

Carmichael’s tumor was the size of a quarter and in advanced stage two. One of the major challenges to fighting pancreatic cancer is the location of the pancreas itself. Survival rates raise slightly higher when a surgeon successfully performs a whippel procedure. The procedure involved a surgeon carving a 12-inch incision in the body and removing the contents of the abominable area to get to the pancreas. Admittedly, the surgery would only boost his chances of survival roughly 20 percent, but he took it.

Doctor’s discharged Carmichael from the hospital on Thanksgiving. He started radiation and chemotherapy on New Year’s Eve that same year.

“It was very unpleasant,” Carmichael said.

He endured the radiation – and all its side effects – for eight months. By the time the ordeal was over, Carmichael had gone from 270 pounds to 190 pounds.

In January 2011, Carmichael walked into the Barco-Newton YMCA on Fleming Island and began to exercise to try to recover his body.

“I was down 90 pounds, so I wasn’t feeling great,” he said.

“People with pancreatic cancer are surviving in better numbers than they were when I had mine,” Carmichael said. “Not a lot more, but there are more because of all these new techniques.”

Carmichael notes more targeted radiation techniques and a now-less invasive whippel surgery contributed to the higher survival rate, but said the number won’t change entirely until an early detection test is created.

Three of Carmichael’s friends have died of pancreatic cancer, all of them died within three months of diagnosis. Currently in remission, Carmichael continues to mentor newly-diagnosed patients all across the country through the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

“We had about 20 survivors that attended our [Jacksonville] Beach Purple Stride event, in years passed we only had three or four or five,” Carmichael said. “We’re getting the word out and people are surviving it better than they were when I was first diagnosed, but the doctors still don’t give you more than an eight percent chance of surviving it. Pancreatic cancer, to defeat it, you need help from everybody, from God, from your family, from your doctor’s – you need help across the board to survive this.”