Patrick Swayze would have celebrated his 70th birthday on Thursday

By Marianne Garvey

Patrick Swayze would have turned 70 on Thursday if it were not for the pancreatic cancer he died from in 2009.

The “Dirty Dancing” star was one of the first public figures to reveal he had the disease, the same one that Alex Trebek and Steve Jobs died from.

Swayze was diagnosed in 2007 and died at age 57.

While there are improved treatments for pancreatic cancer today, in 2009 Swayze told ABC about the symptoms that had been bothering him.

“I tried to have champagne, and it would be like pouring acid, you know, on an open wound,” Swayze told her. “My indigestion issues got gigantic and constant. And then I started thinking, I’m getting skinny. I dropped about 20 pounds in the blink of an eye. And then when you see it in the mirror, when all of a sudden, you pull your eyes down and the bottom(s) of your eyes go yellow and jaundice sets in — then you know something’s wrong.”

It was too late when Swayze was diagnosed and the disease had spread.

Some fans took to Twitter to remember the late actor, with one writing, “The late Patrick Swayze was born on this date in 1952. The ‘Dirty Dancing’ star was a Hollywood icon.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.