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Hello, my name is Michael Sapienza. I am the executive director of the Chris4Life Colon
Cancer Foundation which was founded in memory of my mother Christine Sapienza in 2009. I
remember the day when my mom called me and told me that she had been diagnosed with colon
cancer. It was actually October 4, 2006. I was living in Miami Beach, Florida. I was
actually a musician prior to founding Chris4Life and my mother was an interior designer. She
was a pianist. She was an overall amazing individual that basically gave for her entire
life. When she was diagnosed, I remember the words that her and my father used to describe
the diagnosis was Michael, we have a little bump in the road, we have a little hill and
she said every uphill, we have a downhill and I remember saying to myself immediately,
oh my gosh, my mom has cancer. This is something that I never thought would happen to our family.
She was, you know, skinny, she was healthy, she exercised, no history of cancer in our
family. My mom was 55 when she was diagnosed with colon cancer and she had not had a screening
colonoscopy. If she had, she would be here with us today. Before my mom had passed, I
actually moved home. I was playing an orchestra as I said in Miami Beach, Florida and I moved
to home about two months before she passed and we actually decided as a family to participate
in scope it out 5k run/walk. At the time, it was the largest colon cancer runners event
in the country. It was before Chris4Life was even formed and my mom was like, let's have,
form a team, let's raise some money, let's do something for this and in the course of
doing that while she was very-very sick at the time, we realized very quickly there was
not awareness for colon cancer, it was not on TV, it was not on the radio, it was not
in the newspaper. We were seeing ads for Leukemia Lymphoma Society, other money for organizations
Race for the Cure, that were in October but we were not hearing anything about colon cancer.
This was March, Colon Cancer Awareness Month or Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and we
were not hearing anything. And to be honest, this was when I think in me, I started getting
this spark of we need to do more. There are other organizations out there that are doing
wonderful things right now, but this needs to be a disease that we can all talk about
and it is a preventible disease and so, unfortunately my mom did pass this May 11, 2009. It was
the day after Mother's Day and obviously for a few months we were reeling, but about two
months after she passed, we sat down with some family and friends and some supporters
and we said, you know, let's look at what is out there, let's look at the colon cancer
alliance and the great work that they are doing and Fight CRC and the great work that
they are doing and some other organizations and let's try to compliment that and create
an organization that can do what Susan G. Komen has done for breast cancer. We were
formed and I think it was October 2009. We launched in March of 2010 and we have three
main programs. The Chris4Life has a researching care program, a patient treatment and care
program, and an awareness and prevention program and we spent a lot of time talking about whether
should awareness and prevention be first because it is a 90% preventible disease, so if everybody
got their colonoscopy or their life saving colon cancer screening when they should which
is at age 50 or age 45 for African American or age 40 if you have a family history. If
everybody did that, we would have 90% of colon cancers prevented. We have to get people talking
about this disease, so I encourage you to go to LoveYourButt.org or Chris4Life.org to
get more information about the foundation.
For an interactive tool to learn more about your colon cancer and your personalized treatment
options, go to MyColonCancerCoach.org.