Today's guest blog comes to us from Anjelica (“Anjee”) Davis, who serves as President of Fight Colorectal Cancer, a national nonprofit founded in 2005. For over a decade she has focused her work on colorectal cancer research, education and awareness. Ms. Davis co-chairs the Awareness Task Force for the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable (NCCRT), and is a past member of the steering committee.
To kick off March – Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month – I decided to teach a class of 24 six-year-olds about their colons. I was reminded that day that many of the terms I use on a daily basis may be socially uncomfortable for some.
Yes – those terms we’ve all heard and used but often tell our kids not to: poop, booty, bottom, rectum, bowel movement.
How should I approach this?
I decided to approach the class by talking to the kids about healthy colons. We addressed good eating habits and the color blue. I told them that March is the month we celebrate our colon health. I printed out blown-up coloring pages with The Colon Club’s Captain Colon figurine and a race car. (Download our colorectal cancer coloring sheets here!) I thought that would be enough to suffice. But they wanted more.
Here’s what they asked me (these are real questions from six-year-olds):
Where is your colon?
How do you get your colon checked?
What does your colon do for you?
If it’s not healthy, what does it look like?
How do you fix a colon if it’s not healthy?
Then, the adults in the room made these remarks to me:
Good luck getting my husband checked. I will try to but you know how men are.
Remember don’t say “booty” or “poop.”
I was wondering how you were going to talk about this.
Somewhere Between Six and 50
It dawned on me that those of us who work in colorectal cancer advocacy hope that, somewhere between six and 50 years old, a switch turns on. We hope that what is taught to be “toilet talk” becomes a lifesaving conversation with a health care team.
And we know that not everyone has flipped that switch.
As matter of fact, 23 million adults ages 50 years and older have not been screened for colon cancer. This inability to talk about our colons, bowel movements or unhealthy colon symptoms has led to colon cancer being the second leading cause of cancer deaths for men and women combined in the U.S.
Let’s give “booties” a chance
I urge everyone this March to give yourselves a break and embrace the “booty.” We should follow the lead of our inquisitive six-year-old children, ask questions and talk to our doctors about this preventable cancer. And we should get screened. (Learn colon cancer screening options here.)
And for the one million survivors out there – we celebrate your strength this March. We will no longer allow stigmas associated with colon cancer to stop us from talking to our friends and families about this preventable disease. To honor this commitment, our campaign One Million Strong asks, “Why are you in the fight against colorectal cancer?”
Please – share your story. Share what inspires you. Snap a #StrongArmSelfie picture or take photos of things that motivate you and post them to Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #OMScollection. And after you post – look at the movement you added your voice to here.
Toilet talk isn’t always a bad thing – in fact it could be lifesaving. As adults, let’s be willing to learn a lesson or two from our kids. It could literally save a life.