This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Roger Caplinger, a volunteer ambassador for the Seena Magowitz Foundation and a former executive with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Caplinger spent more than three decades with the team, and retired in 2022 from his position as vice president of medical operations, health and safety.
He discusses how he joined up with the Seena Magowitz Foundation, which has worked to raise awareness and raise funds for pancreatic cancer care and research for more than 20 years. It’s named after founder Roger Magowitz’ mother, who died from pancreatic cancer in 2001.
“Roger has raised money for patients to get second opinions, to raise money for clinical trials,” Caplinger said. “Currently, the foundation has a few support groups that meet on a weekly, monthly basis, for new patients, for older patients like myself that have been a number of years out, and caregivers.”
Caplinger’s involvement with the foundation came after he was diagnosed in 2017 with early-stage pancreatic cancer.
“I wanted to focus myself on something to [be] giving back and paying it forward,” he said. “And I thought that the Seena Magowitz Foundation was a very symbiotic match with me, to try to give my perspective, to try to help others who just got diagnosed with this disease.”
He notes pancreatic cancer is the second most common form of cancer in Wisconsin behind lung cancer, but the disease can be difficult to catch before it develops into a more serious stage.
The podcast highlights programs and gatherings organized by the foundation, as well as efforts to connect patients with other resources. Caplinger says all the money the organization raises goes back into patient care and support.
Later this month, the foundation is hosting its annual Power of Us conference in Milwaukee, bringing together cancer survivors and patients, caregivers, medical professionals, researchers, advocates and others.
