CANCER SCREEN WEEK – DECEMBER 4-9, 2023 With Howard Brown

Hello, it's Howard brown. It's the shining brightly

show, you get me solo today, and I have a very important show and

message to shout out to all of you. And December 4 through the

eighth is cancer screen week, the website's cancer screen

week.org. And it's very important cause for me, I'm an

ambassador for the second year in a row. And I take that role

and responsibility very seriously. As many of my

listeners and audience know, I'm a two time stage four cancer

survivor. And if I would have been screened maybe at age 40,

or 42, for colorectal cancer, I might have not had it or I might

have had a stage one or stage two instead of a stage three and

then metastatic stage four diagnosis. So screening saves

lives. It's affect cancer screening saves lives. So I want

to give a shout out to the partners that make this

possible. The American Cancer Society, really important

organisation, great support, great data, great info, please

check them out. Genentech, pharmaceutical part of the Roche

family. Thank you for your sponsorship. optimum, optimum

health, as well. Thank you for your sponsorship is such an

important message to get out and really important. And lastly,

Stand Up to Cancer. Really important, great organisation.

Maybe you've seen the commercials or seen people stand

up at baseball games and tell them who they're standing up for

either a cancer caregiver or a cancer patient, or someone that

has passed away. And very, very important. So on this website,

you will have guidelines. There's a screening options,

help you find location from where you live, and lots of

other additional resources. Now getting into cancer screening,

I'm going to talk about a couple of the different cancer diseases

and some of these just astonishing numbers.

Astonishing. Alright, let's start with breast cancer. So for

women and men, okay, you can schedule on Mr. graphy test. You

can certainly go see your doctor and you can actually feel for

lumps. But just this year 240,000 People were diagnosed

with breast cancer women 500 Men 42,000 people died from breast

cancer. So early screening can help save lives. I'm going to

keep repeating it. Now. Cervical cancer. I don't have those

numbers with me but going to get a pap smear going to your lady

doctor women going to get checked. Very important to go

see your gynaecologist and keep up with that as well. Next lung

cancer here in the US 238,000 diagnosis this year, and 127,000

deaths. So obviously, smoking doesn't help that so if you can

stop smoking might be able to hopefully avoid avoid lung

cancer, but it's affecting people of all ages as well. And

then prostate cancer for men. So go see your doctor, get a

prostate exam 34,000 deaths this year for prostate cancer, one in

four men will develop prostate cancer over a lifetime. These

are big numbers. This is a serious issue. Now colorectal

cancer near and dear to my heart. Okay, these are worldwide

numbers first 2 million people will be diagnosed this year with

colorectal cancer 930,000 worldwide deaths in the US

155,000 People will get diagnosed 52,000 deaths. It's

just unbelievable. $23 billion dollars will be spent on

treating colorectal cancer patients. That's a last year's

number $23 billion. So I will tell you that young onset

colorectal cancer meaning under the age of 50 is on the rise. So

getting screened is really important as a couple of ways

for that as well. There's something called a faecal immune

test, which is pooping in a cup. You might have seen the

cologuard commercials from exact Science, and that's another poop

in a cup and sent to a lab. And upon a positive screening of

those, they'll refer you to the gold standard a colonoscopy.

Now, a colonoscopy can save your life, it can clip a polyp, and

then come back in five years, or it can determine earlier stage

colorectal cancer, which is potentially more treatable and

can save your lives. These numbers are absolutely

astonishing. So the mission of colo of cancer screen week,

okay, is always the first week of December every year. And it's

the goal to have people be aware and go schedule that appointment

to go get screened. During the pandemic, people did not go get

screened, or they put it off or they forgot about it. They

delayed it. Because access to hospitals and doctors offices

were much more limited. Well, that's not the case. So cancer

screenings, particularly in underserved populations,

disparities, okay, African American population in colon

cancer are the least diagnosed because they are the least

screened. So really important that underserved populations,

build more trust with the healthcare system. And people in

remote locations, or have financial difficulty are

supported to go get screened. Really, really, really

important. So going back to my story. So these last seven

years, I went in for my 50 year old colonoscopy in June of 2016.

And 50 was the screening age. Now it's 45. Unless you have

family history, or you have symptoms, so for colon cancer,

that's a big tell his blood in the stool, but it could be

bloating, could be irritable bowel syndrome, it could be

cramping, it could be sore back. It's actually misdiagnosed more

than you think. So I went in for my colonoscopy, and I'm in

pretty good shape. And I wake up and I asked the doctor,

everything's good, right doc, and it wasn't. I had an eight

and a half centimetre tumour in my cecum which is the connection

to my large and small intestine. And that led set me on a course

of getting hemicolectomy which is called a colon resection 13.1

inches of my colon were removed 10 days later, they aren't

messing around and then taking out margin and live lymph nodes,

one of those lymph nodes was positive. And for protective

measures, you start chemotherapy. I don't want

anyone to have to go through surgeries and chemotherapy. I

know I can't stop it. But it's a horrible existence. So you get

that cancer diagnosis that and I got it now for a second time

lightning struck twice with me as I was diagnosed with stage

four T cell non Hodgkins lymphoma. And miracle number one

a bone marrow transplant saved my life in 1989 for my twin

sister, shout out to you CJ, thank you. Thank you I got my

life back. But at age 50 I was back in therapies and surgeries

and clinical trials. And unfortunately, I failed all

those options. cancer spread to my liver to my stomach lining.

It's called the omentum and the peritoneum and my bowel. And I

found help through online resources. Colon town for my

wife as a caregiver and me as a patient helped me get the

information and the support and walk alongside of me during my

time of need. And I qualified for a surgery called

cytoreduction hyper intrapreneurial chemotherapy.

They basically cut me from chest to pelvic bone and my surgical

oncologist removed all the dead and live cancer cells that they

could see in my abdomen and pelvis. including removing my

peritoneum and my omentum which are the stomach linings,

including shaving my liver, including removing my

gallbladder and including actually doing lots of surgery

on my on my bowel 13 and a half hour surgery I woke up in the

ICU and press the morphine drip button.

And then with all that scar tissue, I did not get a clear

scan until about a year and a half later, where I was actually

told I was no evidence of disease on September. 20th of 19

of 2019. So I had to wait a while. And I'm proud to say now

that I am four years, no evidence of disease on my way to

five years of remission. But there are still so many people

that are going to get diagnosed. And there are so many people

that are going through treatment. And there are people

are going to die. Because their cancer burden became too great,

and they got called to heaven, and you don't know your number.

So I look in the mirror every single day and say, I am

blessed. I am grateful. And I am damn lucky to be alive. And how

can I help people every single day. And I give a speech that

says getting up again. We all get knocked down in life, and in

business and in family and in me and others with health. But we

must get back up again. And again. We must learn and not

walk in that darkness for too long. If you don't know where to

turn, call me. I'll help you get help. I'll get you resources.

Get you a nurse navigator or a social worker or a buddy a

mentor match. It's really important that we support each

other. So answer screen week.org It's an awareness. It's a

resource that I am shouting out at the top of my lungs and

sharing all over social media the first week of December. Go

get screened. Make that appointment today. It's so

important and if you need help reach out so cancer screen week

again our partners in American Cancer Society, Genentech

optumhealth and Stand Up to Cancer. Please, I beg you go

make that appointment, go get screened. I don't want you to

have to go through what I and others go through when we get

told that we have cancer. So breast cancer, cervical cancer,

lung cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, go get your

heart checked, go to the damn dentist. This is serious

business. If you're not your optimal health, you cannot lift

yourself up you cannot lift up others so this is a short show

direct and to the point and you've been listening in or

watching shining brightly. And if we choose to shine brightly,

just a little bit each day for ourselves, for others in our

neighbourhoods in our communities in the world. It

will be a better place for all so I will put on my shining

brightly sunglasses. And I'm now shining for you. Go get

screened, cancer screened weak.org