As part of Colorectal Cancer Awareness month, Screen for Life will offer free colonoscopy screenings to low-income Gainesville and Alachua County residents.
The program, in partnership with UF Shands Cancer Center, Shands HealthCare, the Florida Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seeks to prevent colorectal cancer in vulnerable populations.
Screening events will be held on the remaining Saturdays in March in Live Oak and Palatka.
Dr. Thomas George, an oncologist specializing in colon cancer and director of the gastrointestinal cancer program at the UF Shands Cancer Center, said colon cancer is widespread.
“It’s the second most common cause of cancer death in the U.S.,” he said. “The only cancer more likely to cause death is lung cancer.”
George said colon cancer could develop if people don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables, if they eat too much red meat or if they don’t exercise enough. Unfortunately, it can also be caused by genetics.
“Some things you have control over, like what you eat and what you do, and some things you don’t have any control over, like who your family is and who your parents are,” George said.
For example, despite Michelle Wright not eating red meat, shopping at health-food stores and exercising frequently, her bad genes led to colorectal cancer.
Wright, 55, was diagnosed with stage three colorectal cancer after her first colonoscopy. She said 90 percent of people diagnosed with colon cancer are over the age of 50, and 60 percent of cases can be prevented if people get screened early.
“Just do it. Just quit making excuses, and do it for your family,” Wright said.
