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Exploring the body

Nearly 10 years ago, Dennis Caron, 59, survived his fight with colon cancer. The Thunder Bay man says early screening is what helped him win that fight.
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Luke Parry (left), 13, goes through the giant colon at Intercity Shopping Centre on Saturday. (By Jeff Labine, tbnewswatch.com)

Nearly 10 years ago, Dennis Caron, 59, survived his fight with colon cancer.

The Thunder Bay man says early screening is what helped him win that fight. On Saturday he appeared at the Intercity Shopping Centre to help promote awareness that early cancer screening is important and potentially life saving.

Caron’s story needed a visual aid, so the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and Cancer Care Ontario provided him with one – A 40-foot replica of a human colon. The eye-catching exhibit is a mutlimedia experience that aims to help illustrate the screening process for colon cancer. The exhibit also highlights the consequences of going undiagnosed.

"The day I got screened for colon cancer I won the lottery," Caron said. "I was very fortunate that my family doctor was on the balk in terms of my complaints. Colon cancer was the last thing on my mind."

Caron required surgery and had a portion of his colon removed. He said the scariest part was the thought of not seeing his children grow up. He added that getting cancer again is a concern but said at his age it might not be colon cancer again.

"That’s a worry," he said. "I’m in my 10th year now and I feel blessed with that."

Caron spoke at the official opening of the giant colon. He said he was more nervous talking about his experience than getting the colonoscopy that led to his diagnoses.

Getting the test is important for people 50 years old and older. If a family has a history of colon cancer, family members should be tested when they turn 40.

The Canadian Cancer Society reports that about 8,000 people in Ontario are diagnosed with colon cancer each year. Every year about 3,000 Canadians cannot share Caron’s story and die because of the disease. The Cancer Society says about 90 per cent of people diagnosed in the early stages of colon cancer survive.

Information booths were situated near the giant colon Saturday. From those booths individuals could take a home test called a fecal occult blood test.

The test looks for blood in a person’s stool, which might be a sign of colon cancer. The test requires two stool samples on three separate days. Once completed, individuals can mail the test for laboratory results. The kits are available at health-care provider offices.

Ken Bittle, board chair for the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation, said the goal of bringing awareness is not to make people feel better, but to save lives.

"It’s really to raise awareness for people over 50 like myself," Bittle said. "By going through this exhibit you can see a much larger than life common colon diseases. We gladly support this exhibit with donations from people in the region."

Bittle said the foundation had three main fundraising initiatives and one of them is the Northern Cancer Fund. All the money raised through that fund goes toward cancer research and treatment, he said.

The giant colon is scheduled to stay at the Intercity Shopping Centre until Monday.




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