Beth Alper Slepian

Beth was born in Springfield, Ohio in 1958. Losing her mother to breast cancer in 1966 and her father to rheumatic heart disease in 1972, left Beth and her younger sister, Amy, orphans by the time Beth was thirteen. The two girls, her aunt Judith Udall and grandmother Eva Beller then relocated to San Francisco.

Beth graduated summa cum laude in psychology from Dominican College (now University) in 1976. After briefly working at Foremost McKesson in data entry, she moved to Buffalo, New York earning her master's degree in special education from Buffalo State College, during which time she met her husband to be, Dr. Ian Slepian.

After marrying in 1985, the Slepians relocated to Baltimore, MD where Beth taught primary level Special Education in Baltimore County for 15 years. She obtained her master's degree in social work at the University of Maryland in 2003 and served as Director of the Maryland Disabilities Forum and then as a social worker for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Starting in 2008 Beth worked as a social worker for the nonprofit Govans Ecumenical Development Corporation (GEDCO), at Stadium Place, a mixed income senior living location in Baltimore.

In April 2016, Beth was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer, receiving the sad news in a telephone call while at a New Jersey rest stop on the way up from Baltimore to attend her nephew's PhD. defense at Harvard. Beth was determined to be at this event and attended all the ceremonies that weekend, never disclosing the terrible news to her nephew or other family members, so as not to divert attention to herself, nor did she burden her father-in-law with the news as he was in hospice due to end stage heart disease. That was the kind of person Beth was. Even throughout the six years of her illness, she was always thinking of others first regardless of how she was feeling.

Beth, never a candidate for surgery, bravely endured 116 rounds of chemotherapy, five liver biopsies, an immunotherapy clinical trial at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and multiple courses of radiation therapy. She decided to retire from her social work career in 2017 when the chemo side effects were just too unpredictable for her to be able to reliably serve her residents but made it a point to stay connected with many of them in the years that followed.

Since 2018, Beth and her husband Ian have volunteered for the nonprofit Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN), fundraising for PanCAN's PurpleStride events. Beth and Ian were the top fundraisers in Maryland for the last two events.

Despite her own cancer challenges, she consoled and counseled other individuals afflicted with this cancer, and with her husband, helped patients navigate the academic arena and clinical trial system. Beth also participated in PanCAN's legislative efforts to advocate to congress for more federal funding (once during a virtual Capitol Hill Day, from her hospital chair at NIH) for research on pancreatic cancer, the solid tumor cancer with the worst survival rate of only 11% at five years.

Beth also benefited personally from PanCAN's services including research advances, clinical trial information provided by a one-on-one case manager, and the support of staff members and other volunteers.

For more than six years, Beth beat the odds. Research advances, her BRCA mutation (a DNA repair mutation which increases the risk of certain cancers including pancreatic, but at the same time makes the tumor more susceptible to certain types of chemotherapy), a team of oncologists at several academic centers in addition to her primary oncologist, research of clinical trials by her husband, who was always trying to stay a step ahead of the cancer, and her own determination, all contributed. Yet, Beth never felt she was any sort of hero, just that there was little alternative but to keep on going by continuing the sometimes harsh chemo regimens. She would look back and comment that the side effects were 'not that bad.' Beth maintained a remarkably positive attitude of the glass half full, especially when she and her doctors had a plan for the next step, never complaining about her illness. Even in her final weeks and days, she commiserated with friends about their problems with the utmost empathy and compassion and was more concerned about Ian's welfare than her own.

As Beth's health declined, people would advise her to travel the world, but she made friends and family her priority, including daily calls with her sister and aunt Judith in California, and communication with her nephew, Ben. She also cherished visits to and by the extended Slepian family in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Buffalo, and Florida, as well as friends, many dating back to college and even before. Beth also loved dearly, Flash, the cocker spaniel which Ian and Beth "co-parented" with their Towson friends. Beth would visit Towson to walk Flash several times a week until she was no longer physically able and always carried his framed picture to chemotherapy and later to radiation sessions.

After reaching the five-year survival landmark on April 20, 2021, Beth set a new and very ambitious goal of living until her six-year diagnosis anniversary of April 20, 2022, which remarkably she achieved.

Loved by family and friends, Beth lived her life with kindness and selflessness and touched the lives of so many people, including other cancer survivors, and even her treatment specialists. To everyone she knew, her strength, compassion, and grace even under the worst duress, will forever be an inspiration.