In 2000, President Clinton announced that March would be officially designated National Colon Cancer (CC) Awareness Month. Since the announcement, March has become a time where public health advocates, healthcare providers, survivors, patients, and others who are part of the CC community rally to educate the public on the importance of CC screening and prevention.
CC is highly preventable if detected early through proper screening, but due partly to the invasive screening procedure, it is second only to lung cancer in the amount of lives it claims annually.
In an effort to reduce the number of deaths that are attributable to CC, Ferndale Healthcare, the company that produces RectiCare, together with a continued partnership with the Colon Cancer Alliance, the nation’s leading non-profit patient advocacy organization for CC, has created a patient educational brochure with the mission to increase CC screening rates. The brochure will be distributed to 2,500 colo-rectal surgery offices throughout the US and includes an easy-to-read summary of Signs, Symptoms, and Screening information, as well as important CC statistics.
In a press release about the educational initiative, Katherine Gunn, Product Manager for RectiCare, stated “As one of the leading brands designed to manage the symptoms of benign anorectal conditions, we feel a responsibility to partner with an organization, such as the Colon Cancer Alliance, whose sole mission is to raise awareness of colon cancer among consumers of all ages, alerting them to signs and symptoms of the third most prevalent cancer in the United States. Early detection is key to treating colon cancer and we want to do our part to help reduce its incidence in this country.”
The educational brochure is just one of many initiatives Ferndale Healthcare aims to complete throughout the rest of the company’s 3 year partnership with the Colon Cancer Alliance. The partnership began in January of 2014 with the purpose of educating individuals about the importance of screening for CC and to help alleviate the debilitating effects of the disease.
In a company wide announcement about the importance of the partnership, Gunn noted, “Of course, we want to sell our brand, but we believe it is also our responsibility to encourage consumers to see their Physicians to rule out a serious underlying disease, such as colon cancer…… In addition to generating awareness and educating consumers on this devastating disease, over the next three years, RectiCare® is providing financial support to benefit the life-saving programs of the Colon Cancer Alliance.”
