“It is preventable and there’s something that people can do, and it’s empowering.”
A colonoscopy found her stage three colon cancer and set her on a difficult journey to reclaim her health.
Now, she’s started an organization to raise awareness about colon cancer and help others prevent it.
In recent years, colon cancer rates have beenrisingin young people.
Doctors aren’t exactly sure why, though theories about diet and environmental factors are being investigated.
To be clear, the risk of cancer when you’re young is still pretty low.
People aged 20 to 39 account forjust 5%of cancer cases each year.
Bloody stool is a commonsymptom of colon cancer.
Everyone gets them, you’re fine.'
And so I was relieved and took her word for it."
She saw a gastroenterologist who scheduled her for a colonoscopy just a few days later.
And I actually learned that it was stage three."
I thought that a colonoscopy wasjusta diagnostic tool, like the mammogram that detected my breast cancer.
But Brooks explained that they can actually prevent colon cancer from developing in the first place.
Apolypis a growth of cells in the lining of the colon.
Polyps are very common.
In fact, they’re found in more than a quarter of colonoscopies performed in the US.
Many are benign, but some can go on to develop into cancer.
So why don’t we hear more about this potentially life-saving procedure?
According to Brooks, colon cancer has a marketing problem.
She didn’t stop there.
So Brooks contacted Ryan Reynolds' team and he came on board.
In September 2022, Ryan shareda videoof himself and his good broRob McElhenneygetting colonoscopies on YouTube.
Still feeling nervous about the idea of a colonoscopy?
“It is no longer your grandfather’s colonoscopy anymore.
You don’t have those huge jugs.
They’re not bad and you don’t have to drink as much of it they even have pills.
So the prep itself is no longer a disgusting, nauseating thing.”
And then you go to bed and you do the same thing in the morning."
“It is like the best nap you have ever had,” Brooks says.
“You’re only out for, like, 25 minutes.
It’s not like an operating room.
It doesn’t feel like scary like that.
It is actually like a lovely restful experience.”
She really wants people to feel less afraid about getting this preventative care.
“When you wake up, there’s no such thing as bad news,” she says.
For Brooks, she had 10 inches of her colon surgically removed and underwent chemotherapy.
She’s now just over five years out from her diagnosis with no evidence of disease.
Rather than, ‘Oh my god, I’m 43.’
It’s another year of great life lived."
