CentraState to ‘Paint the Town Blue’ for Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Freehold is helping to spread awareness of Colorectal Cancer by being decorated blue. 

At 1 p.m., on Friday, March 1 hospital staff from CentraState Health System will join cancer survivors and community members to illuminate blue lights in front of the hospital that will remain for the entire month of March.

Volunteers will also tie blue ribbons on trees in front of the hospital and in downtown Freehold and a large banner will be placed in town to help raise awareness of the disease. To show their support, hospital staff members will also be dressing in blue on Friday, says Jan Dragotta, BS, RT(R,T), clinical director of Radiation Oncology, who is helping coordinate the event.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among cancers that strike both men and women. More than 140,000 Americans are diagnosed with cancer of the colon or rectum each year, and more than 50,000 people die from the disease. However, as many as 60 percent of deaths from this cancer could be avoided if everyone 50 years old or older were screened regularly, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Most screenings we do for cancer try to detect the disease in earliest stages, when it is most treatable,” Dragotta says. “However, colorectal cancer screening can actually prevent the disease by finding precancerous polyps, which can be removed before they turn into cancer.”

Depending on a person’s age and medical history, screening may include one or more tests including colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, a fecal occult blood test or a double-contrast barium enema.

Paint the Town Blue will be followed by a series of free talks and screenings throughout the month of March. For more information, please visit centrastate.com/healthprograms or call (732) 308-0570.