The precarity of life — the topic I write about most often these days — made itself known again this weekend.
Precarity, to me, is the idea that really good things and really awful things can be happening at the same time.
On Friday, I got a call that I got a promotion at work. I’m thrilled, truly. I love the company I work for and I’ve gotten to do some creative and innovative work.
Earlier in the day, I learned that a 36-year-old friend, Jason, passed away from the terminal colorectal cancer he had been fighting for several years.
Friday was an emotional whirlwind. Elation for a new chapter in my career. Grief for the loss of a friend.
And anger.
While Jason wasn’t a close friend, I admired him for the candor and honesty with which he wrote about his cancer journey on his blog, Cancer Canuck.
I got to meet Jason last September at the Man Up to Cancer Gathering of Wolves. Nice guy. Heart of gold. Amazing human being. You couldn’t help but love the guy.
And now he’s gone.
How is it possible that a young man’s life was cut short by a disease that has traditionally afflicted older people?
Jason didn’t deserve this.
None of the people I know who are facing colorectal cancer deserve this. Young dads, young moms, young single people with their entire lives ahead of them except for one thing: they have stage IV cancer.
What the actual f@€%!
Colorectal cancer is the number one cancer killer of men under the age of 50, and the number two cancer killer of women under the age of 50.
Why aren’t more people freaked out by this?
Why aren’t our elected leaders doing more to stop young people from dying of colorectal cancer?
My Congressman, Rep. Tim Burchett, paid attention to me for 10 minutes while I was in Washington, D.C., for Fight Colorectal Cancer Call-on Congress last month.
He was my de facto boss years ago when he was County Mayor and I worked for the health department.
We know each other pretty well.
He said good things and asked good questions during our time together.
His family has been impacted by colorectal cancer, he said, then asked how Black people are affected.
Rep. Burchett joined the Congressional Colorectal Cancer Caucus because I asked him (it was one of the three things we asked for as Fight CRC advocates).
The other asks?
First, a $20 million to fund a colorectal cancer research line through the U.S. Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program. Of the big five cancer killers, colorectal cancer is the only one without a specific funding stream.
Second, $51 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Colorectal Cancer Control Program, which provides colorectal cancer screenings to uninsured and underinsured people. Participating states match funding provided by the CDC. Tennessee does not participate, though.
Rep. Burchett signaled his support for both issues but you’ll have to forgive my skepticism. He doesn’t often support the funding bills that come through the appropriations process because there’s at least one thing he disagrees with.
Watching the sausage get made is brutal. But for 10 minutes we had a great visit.
Then the congressman had to get back to his committee meeting.
We advocates left town on March 13. Congress went back to business.
Now it’s up to us to make sure Fight CRC’s legislative agenda remains top of mind, and to keep raising the flag for colorectal cancer awareness beyond the month of March.
We have so much work to do.
Screening is important, of course. If you’re 45 or older you need to talk to your doctor about getting a colonoscopy. If you have a family history, you need to be screened sooner.
Don’t want to do a colonoscopy because you’ve heard nightmare stories about the prep? There are other tests, like Cologuard and FIT. There are even blood tests for average risk individuals.
But who’s an average risk individual anymore?
We need more research to determine why colorectal cancer is being diagnosed at younger and younger ages. Is it all of the chemicals and toxins we’re exposed to on a regular basis? Microplastics? The food we eat? More sedentary lifestyle?
It’s the billion dollar question, and we need at least that much money to figure this out.
But the calls for that research aren’t loud enough. What’s it going to take?
Famous young people have died of colorectal cancer, including Chadwick Boseman, and we scream and shout that something should be done.
Not famous young people like Jason are dying. His name is added to the growing list of people I’ve known who have died from colorectal cancer recently.
And I’ve run out of digits to count the people I know who are in the thick of cancer. Incurable. Chemotherapy for life.
People I fight for.
People I love.
That love will continue to fuel my advocacy in the fight against colorectal cancer.
And maybe a little anger.
Until there is a cure.
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