OMAHA- Private funds have been raised to match a state allocation of $15 million to bolster research into pancreatic cancer at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Among the leading donors of the $15 million private match for UNMC’s Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence were two prominent Omaha families who lost loved ones to the deadly cancer.

Jim Young, who was president, chairman and CEO of Union Pacific, died at age 61 in 2014 after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Young’s family foundation donated, as did members of the Noddle family. Harlan Noddle, a developer and community leader, died in 2005 from the cancer at the age of 69.

Last year, the Nebraska Legislature agreed to allocate $15 million of the state’s $1.04 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funds to the Med Center’s program, if private donors could match that amount. The private donations will help UNMC build its research program, recruit world-class physicians and scientists, and pioneer novel approaches into the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of pancreas cancer.

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