Nice work! I recommend you making a generic function which includes mostly the code in your while-loop. This generic function can take some arguments and pan any axes in a figure. When you want to stop, just press Ctrl+C to stop the execution of the function. When you want to continue, you just run the function again.
Layout a list of the input arguments,such as the figure handle, axes handle, how fast you want it move, the initial xlimit, etc. I think it can be done.