🦓 Zebra Steps for Patty: A Walk for Neuroendocrine Cancer 🦓

Saturday, November 21, 2026
Kiwanis Park — Tempe, Arizona
5K Walk/Run — In-person and virtual participation
Black & White / Zebra-inspired attire encouraged

Patricia “Patty” Ann Comer Lopez was a beautiful person inside and out — intelligent, creative, adventurous, resourceful, and deeply devoted to her family.

For more than 14 years, Patty courageously battled neuroendocrine cancer with remarkable strength, determination, humor, and grace. Her journey was long and incredibly challenging. Patty’s tenacity meant she continually defied the odds, facing every hurdle with resilience and determination to live fully.  At the heart of that determination was love.

Throughout her journey, Patty’s three daughters, her sons-in-law, and her grandchildren surrounded her with strength, comfort, and joy, giving Patty the motivation to keep fighting for as long as she did.  Her grandchildren held an especially precious place in her heart, bringing her immeasurable happiness. The bond she shared with them gave her countless reasons to keep pushing forward, even during the most difficult parts of her illness.

Patty never allowed cancer to define who she was. She remained adventurous, funny, curious, and full of life. She loved spending time with her family, traveling, attending baseball games, taking road trips, cooking, planning projects, and creating memories with the people she loved most.  She was a walking example of what it means to live with courage.

After exhausting the available medical treatment options, Patty faced the final chapter of her journey with extraordinary dignity and grace. Surrounded by the people who loved her most, and with laughter, music and stories, Patty passed away on April 27, 2025.  She is greatly missed, but her strength, humor, and spirit inspire our family every day.

Zebra Steps for Patty was created to honor that strength and to help others facing neuroendocrine cancer have more options, more research, and more hope. The zebra is especially meaningful in the neuroendocrine cancer community. 

In medicine, doctors are often taught, “When you hear hoofbeats, think zebras, not horses.” People living with rare diseases such as neuroendocrine cancer are the zebras — the cases that can sometimes be overlooked or misunderstood. Patty was one of those zebras, and just like no two zebras have the same stripes, every NET patient has a unique journey.

Through the Second Annual Zebra Steps for Patty 5K, we walk in Patty’s memory, raise awareness about neuroendocrine cancer, and support research through the Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation so that future patients and families may have more treatment options and more precious time together.