Alpharetta restaurateur changing the future for pancreatic cancer patients

Her resolve and success are widely admired in the nonprofit sector, and her commitment to supporting doctors and researchers remains unchanged. She wants real hope for people with pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is a highly aggressive form of cancer with a five-year survival rate of 13% for all cases, according to the American Cancer Society. By about 2030, pancreatic cancer is expected to be the second-leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States, with cases increasing in the South and in younger patients.

Credit: Photos courtesy of Purple Pansies

Credit: Photos courtesy of Purple Pansies

Doctors say Fundora is much more than a master of fundraising over a glass of wine and a plate of Spaghetti Cardonara or Veal Florentina at her restaurant, Casa Nuova. They say her efforts are quietly reshaping a field that has long struggled for attention and could help unlock the early-detection tools that researchers have chased for years.

“She’s a powerhouse. She’s infectious, and she’s all smiles,” said Dr. Andrew Page, founder of Piedmont Hospital’s Pancreas Cancer Surgery and medical director at the hospital’s new Early Detection Pancreatic Cancer Clinic. “You can never turn her down. ”

Fundora’s nonprofit, Purple Pansies, isn’t just growing, Page said — “it has become one of the largest, well-respected patient advocacy and support groups for research on pancreatic cancer,” he said.

And it all grew out of Cuban-born Fundora’s love for her mother, Iluminada Milian.

Sorrow turns to action

Fundora and her mother were in shock when doctors told Milian she had a tumor growing on her pancreas that was discovered too late. The two couldn’t believe it and opted to try conventional cancer treatments, but Milian died three months after her diagnosis at age 72.

Fundora dreamed of finding a way to honor her mother. She started small. She and her husband, Antonio “Tony” Fundora, a well-known Atlanta restaurant owner, took the unprecedented step of opening Casa Nuova one Mother’s Day and donating all sales revenues from the day to fight pancreatic cancer. That $3,000 gave her the courage to launch her nonprofit in 2017.

Fundora chose to call it Purple Pansies since purple is the international symbol for pancreatic cancer, and pansies are known for their resilience.

When her husband, Tony, died in 2021, Fundora persevered. She grew the reach of the Purple Pansies to include not only raising and giving out money for research but also helping families struggling financially because of their cancers. By early this December, Purple Pansies had raised nearly $1 million for the year.

A rare flower

Piedmont Hospital’s Page said Fundora’s Purple Pansies is fairly unique in the nonprofit world.

Some nonprofits thrive, but a lot die off after two or three years “because there’s not the funding enthusiasm,” he said. “That’s not the case for Marie and Janice (Chalovich, Purple Pansies’ unpaid executive director).”

Purple Pansies has donated money to several organizations, including the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an Arizona-based arm of City of Hope that is dedicated to early detection and better outcomes.

Purple Pansies is financially backing Piedmont’s new clinic, which opened in November with a focus on early detection.

“It will have a dramatic impact on the Southeast, one of the worst places in the country to live and be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer,” Page said.

Purple Pansies also has poured fundraising dollars into clinical trials at HonorHealth Research Institute on the effects of a ketogenic diet — one very low in carbs, high in fat, moderate in protein — in combination with chemotherapy in advanced cases, said Dr. Erkut Borazanci, the institute’s director of oncology.

Currently, the institution is looking at a combination therapy, hoping to make immunotherapy work better against pancreatic cancer.

Chalovich, described as a major, behind-the-scenes force at the nonprofit, is credited with broadening the organization’s mission to give financial assistance to families with a pancreatic cancer diagnosis.

Since 2021, Pansies has given out 86 scholarships to students in 19 states to ease the financial burden of college in affected families.

The organization also has provided financial assistance, usually within days, to pancreatic cancer patients in 15 states who need help buying food and paying their other regular bills as they’re battling their cancer.

Teona Ducre received both a scholarship for her daughter and hardship assistance for her family from Purple Pansies. She was 41 with two teenagers when she was diagnosed with Stage 3 inoperable adenocarcinoma, a disease that affects the pancreas and other organs.

“We are forever grateful to Maria and Purple Pansies for their generosity,” she said.

Fundora said the organization never turns done anyone with pancreatic cancer in need of financial help.

“We always find a way,” she said.

Purple Pansies has two major fundraisers each year, a block party with food from Fundora’s restaurant and its Pillars of Hope gala, held in the fall each year, complete with a cocktail hour and multicourse dinner she oversees.

In recent years, she’s had an annual, and sometimes optimistic, goal of $1 million. By early December, she had raised $925,000 for 2025. She was holding out hope of a few last-minute donations before the end of the year and tax time.

The organization is largely the work of Fundora and Chalovich, a five-member board of directors, and about 10 core volunteers. None of them are paid, and most, if not all, have lost loved ones to pancreatic cancer. This includes Chalovich, whose dad died of the disease.

Fundora believes she and her group can keep momentum going as they search for answers: if not a cure, then methods for ensuring early detection.

“I feel like I haven’t even met my full potential,” she said.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

purplepansies.org/