Faces of Blue

FACES OF BLUE 30MAR2012

I'm honored to be part of the Faces of Blue - today is my day on the March Calendar. Click the line at the top of this post to see the story. If you read the stories, you'll see a sad trend of colorectal cancer patients diagnosed under age 50. Please help me spread the word about signs of colorectal cancer, the importance of knowing family history, and the importance of being an advocate for your own health. There is not a "magic age" of 50 that protects you from CRC until then. More and more people under age 50 are being diagnosed.

If you haven't read any of these stories yet, click "Faces of Blue" and go back and read them - one for each day of the month of March. There are many inspirational stories, and I bet you'll even recognize some of them.

It is funny to see my husband shorter than me - the tent was too low for him to stand up straight since he is 6'8", so he had to squat! I should have proofread better - my oldest was only 22 when I was diagnosed, and I had some typos too... The story was written in advance of March, and I'm not playing whack-a-mole right now - my last scan was clear! And since then I've been asked to be honorary chair at the Twin Cities Get Your Rear in Gear 5K Run/Walk in May, and I attended ACSCAN (American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network) to call on my state legislators too. The agenda that day was related to legistlation aimed to keep young people from starting to smoke, and I had enough extra time with my senator and the neighboring district senator (a family friend who turned 50 and didn't have a colonoscopy yet) to also talk about March being CRC Awareness Month, and the importance of screenings. I've worn blue every day this month - one more to go. I think I might wear red on April 1! It has been a good month, and I am blessed to be doing well enough to finally get out and spread the word on CRC Awareness.