To honor Days of Our Lives star Drake Hogestyn, who died of pancreatic cancer in September 2024, the cast formed a team called Hogey’s Home Runners. To help raise funds and awareness for pancreatic cancer, the team participated in the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s (PanCAN) huge fundraising walk called PanCAN PurpleStride. At the event, Hogestyn’s daughters opened up about how wonderful and strong their father was until the very end.

He Was Always Positive

Hogestyn’s daughters, Alex Corwin and Whitney Herndon, spoke in a video with Access Hollywood about their beloved dad. Corwin explained, “He was positive until the very end, but that was my dad’s personality; he was larger than life, he was Superman, he never wanted anyone to know that anything was wrong, which is why he kept this so private.”

His family held out hope until the very last moment that the actor would beat his cancer. At the event, the sisters met Martha Madison for the first time, who plays Belle, the daughter of Hogestyn’s heroic character, John Black. “Drake meant so much to us, so thank you for sharing him with us for all these years,” she said to the young women. Madison had spearheaded putting the actors together as a team.

They Hit It Out of the Park

Herndon was grateful for the actors coming together not only for a worthy cause but also to honor their father. “It means so much for us to be here today and just feel the love and the support,” said Herndon. Madison explained that she hoped the Hogestyn family was proud of their efforts. Because Hogestyn had previously been a professional baseball player, before becoming an actor, he would use the sport’s terminology as advice for life.

“He used to always say, ‘Go swing for the fences,’ ” Madison remarked, adding, “And that’s what we did.” The video showed Hogestyn with castmate and friend Stephen Nichols (Steve) using his trademark phrase. Herndon added, “We know exactly what our dad would say. He would say, ‘They hit it out of the park.’ ”