Chadwick Boseman’s widow marks Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month in DC, calling for action

Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month is marked with display on National Mall

A humbling display on the National Mall is bringing attention to colorectal cancer.

WASHINGTON - In 2020, the death of Howard University grad and actor Chadwick Boseman shocked the world. The actor, most known for his role in the 2018 Marvel series movie "Black Panther," died of colorectal cancer.

Now on the National Mall is a humbling display, meant to bring awareness to this specific type of cancer that’s become one of the top five killers in men and women. However, it’s not as regularly talked about – and as much information is known.

‘It makes me angry that a disease so treatable took him from me when all we needed to start out with was knowledge. It makes me angry that colorectal cancer diagnoses had been rising so dramatically in young people, in young Black people in particular, for 15-years before he was diagnosed, and we still knew nothing about it. It makes me angry that we don’t talk …. And it makes me angry that we still have no idea why it’s happening," said Simone Ledward Boseman.

Boseman shared that her husband was diagnosed at 39-years-old. He worked throughout his battle and died at just 43-years-old.

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Chadwick Boseman’s widow marks Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month in DC, calling for action

"Fight Colorectal Cancer" or "@FightCRC" online is the group behind the display on the National Mall, now showing 27,400 flags planted into the ground. Each flag is meant to represent the over 27,000 people, ages 20-49-years-old, projected to be diagnosed with the cancer 2030.

Fight CRC leaders say of the top five killer cancers, colorectal cancer is the only one that does not have its own research program and dedicated funding stream from the federal government.

READ MORE: Black Panther suit worn by Chadwick Boseman featured in DC's African American history museum

The symptoms include sudden weight loss and abdominal pain, a change in stool or blood in your stool. However, the cancer does not always show symptoms, which is why detection – and early detection – are important. This is a cancer that experts say is treatable. However, a growing number of young people are getting diagnosed by the time it’s too late.

"Talk about it. Talk to your friends, talk to your family, talk to your social networks. Your community is where it starts, and you have the information, so you have to obligation to save everyone around you, said Ledwards Boseman at a Tuesday morning rally by the display.

Afterword, those in attendance were expected to head to their local Congress members’ offices to advocate for change.

Among those speaking at the rally also included Democratic New Jersey Representative Donald Payne Jr., who lost his father to colorectal cancer. Republican Representative from Tennessee, Mark Green, also spoke as a colorectal cancer survivor.

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