This is My Give Back | Two-Time Cancer Survivor Advocates for Screenings and Connectedness

#coloncancer #coloncancersurvivor #coloncancerawareness
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Howard Brown said recovering from stage IV Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the unthinkable age of 23 was like “putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.”
After receiving a successful bone marrow transplant from his twin sister and undergoing extensive chemotherapy and full body radiation, Brown set his sights on survivorship; he moved to Silicon Valley from his then-home in Ohio and basically started anew.
“I moved to California to rebuild myself emotionally, physically, financially, with my career, and then with my relationships,” said Brown, a Medicare Advantage Blue member. “I had to put myself back together. I was 135 pounds and bald. It was hard work to put myself back together, but I did.”
Brown, a current Birmingham resident, got the most out of his second lease on life. He met his wife, he got into community service, and he thrived in his computer technology career, all for that second lease to expire unexpectedly soon after moving his family to Michigan in 2005.
“I went in for my annual physical at age 50 and (my doctor said) ‘it’s time for your colonoscopy,’” Brown said. “Except for a bit of irritable bowel syndrome leading up, I didn’t have any symptoms. I was great. But on June 4 of 2016, I woke up from that colonoscopy - and it shows you how important it would be to get screened earlier, but 50 was the mandatory age back then - I woke up with an eight-and-a-half-centimeter tumor in my cecum.”
The cecum connects the large and small intestine. Brown’s doctors said he had stage 3B colon cancer.
“Lightning struck again for me,” Brown said.
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[@ChristaRose-1]

So impactful, you are definitely here for a reason, and thank you for bringing awareness to this- you don’t know how many lives you’ll change 💜