Written by Tracy Dupaquier
(The 2021 Kicking Butt 5K occurred 9/25/2021)
Today, I walked, along with my husband Rob and our daughter Savannah Jo in memory of my mother.
She was 56 years old when she was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer in 2003. She passed three years later in 2006. She would still be here today – if she had received a screening colonoscopy.During her journey, I was very thankful for the care given to her by Dr. David Dresner at Gastroenterology of Southern Indiana and Dr. Seeger with Norton Oncology. Mary Jo was a proud grandmother to eight lights of her life. We all miss her terribly.
I advanced my career of many years as a labor and delivery RN at Baptist Health Floyd with the pursuit of a nurse practitioner degree at Spalding. I am a nurse practitioner with Park Duvalle Community Health Center. I feel that in my role as a provider, I am an even stronger advocate for my patients in educating and promoting timely colon cancer screenings.
I am hopeful the future will bring earlier testing, funding and supporting resources for the underinsured/uninsured in helping prevent more unnecessary diagnoses/deaths from colon cancer. This isn’t just an older persons’ cancer anymore.
My sister and I like to say “Get your REAR in gear… prevent colon cancer.”
Preventable. Treatable. Beatable.
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