I am participating in the 2024 Boston Marathon® Jimmy Fund Walk presented by Hyundai, taking steps toward the ultimate finish line: a world without cancer.
On June 5, 2019 I went to the ER at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC with the worst stomach pain I had ever felt. The cause of the pain was quickly diagnosed. At age 34, I had stage 3C colon cancer. During the time from when I went to the ER until I received my final diagnosis a week later, I had surgery, where a baseball-sized tumor was removed from my colon. As my family and I searched for reasons why I had contracted this disease so young -- with no family history of colon cancer -- we discussed what to do next. We luckily came across the Young Onset Colorectal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a new center focused precisely on people like me within one of the world’s most renowned cancer centers. At the time the center was just a few months old.
Growing up in Boston, I was quite familiar with the work at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, including their 60-year partnership with my hometown Red Sox. I knew of the amazing work they did helping kids with cancer. I knew several people who rode in the 190 mile Pan-Mass Challenge each year to support the Jimmy Fund. My parents supported many of these riders and the Pan-Mass has been their favorite charity for over 30 years. I just never thought I would be one of Dana-Farber’s patients. Knowing everything I knew about Dana-Farber, deciding to have my treatment there, as part of the new Young Onset Colorectal Cancer Center, was a no brainer, and my experience could not have been better.
The Young Onset Colorectal Cancer Center, founded and led by the amazing Dr. Kimmie Ng, provides a holistic approach to treatment, focused on people like me—young people grappling with the diagnosis of a life-threatening disease. The Young Onset Colorectal Cancer Center has provided me with everything I’ve needed to make my 12 rounds of chemotherapy as manageable as possible. In addition to Dr. Ng and her amazing team of nurses, I’ve been provided with a social worker at each treatment, genetic testing to determine if I or future offspring would be at greater risk for multiple cancers, and a dedicated support team who were always on call and ready to answer any questions I had at any time of day or night. After my diagnosis, when it could have easily felt like I had no control, the Young Onset Colorectal Cancer Center has made my six months of treatment and the anxiety-inducing aftermath of scans and screenings much more bearable. I have also been lucky to participate in a few of the research studies being led by the Young Onset Center to better understand why young people are getting colon cancer at such a rapid rate, and to find better treatments and eventually cures for this dreaded disease.
My diagnosis came as a total shock to me, but maybe it shouldn’t have. Unlike some other cancers, colon cancer does present symptoms—we need to be better at identifying those symptoms to catch the disease early, while it is still treatable. Since 1994, cases of young-onset colorectal cancer have increased by 51 percent, according to the National Cancer Institute. The rising incidence of young-onset colorectal cancer has recently led the American Cancer Society to revise its colorectal cancer screening guidelines to start earlier at age 45 instead of 50. In the United States, 11 percent of colon cancer diagnoses, and 18 percent of rectal cancer diagnoses, occur in individuals under the age of 50. In just 10 years, colon cancer incidence is expected to double. I was lucky that my cancer was caught before it had spread. Many others my age and younger are not as lucky. Clearly, there needs to be better awareness about the symptoms of colon cancer, the need for earlier screening, and funding for the research that will eventually provide cures.
This year will be my fifth Jimmy Fund Walk and I am honored to be walking for Team CRC to support Dr. Ng and the Young Onset Center in her work to treat young people battling colorectal cancers, find new treatments to combat this disease, and eventually make colorectal cancer a thing of the past.
Thank you for your support!
