Carmen Marc Valvo
Wednesday, September 8, 2004 was the day my life changed. No, it was not the day that I was diagnosed with colon cancer. My diagnosis actually came many months earlier. It was the day that I came out of the “cancer closet.”
It was on that fortuitous day in September that I joined forces with a woman we are all familiar with, Katie Couric, who had partnered with fashion week sponsor Olympus to launch a colorectal cancer awareness initiative. I believed the universe was trying to tell me something and I had to see what I could do to help.
The tents of Bryant Park, which had long been a platform for me to share my designs, had now become a new platform for me to share my story. A story not about art and fashion, but a story about hope and the art of survival. At a press conference, with Katie by my side, I first spoke publicly about my battle with colon cancer. At that time I didn’t realize what a life altering experience a simple admission of truth could unfold. From that day forward I joined the crusade to make colon cancer more fashionable to talk about and it has been the most rewarding work of my life.
Being diagnosed with cancer turned my world upside down. I was shocked, humiliated and absolutely terrified. But I was very lucky, lucky that I had a physician who recognized the signs, and lucky that I got screened when I did. I was only 48 years old at the time of my diagnosis, two years shy of the recommended age for a colon cancer screening, another month or even a few weeks and I know I would not be here today. I feel blessed for every day that I am alive.
Colon cancer is the cancer no one wants to talk about and I would like to change that! I am committed to spreading the word to people-just-like-me, people unaware of a family history with cancer that would have made them a candidate for early screening. People who do have knowledge of a family history but are under the age of fifty and think they are not at risk. Cancer does not discriminate regardless of sex, age, race, family history or economic disposition. Listen to yourself. If I hadn’t listened to myself, I probably wouldn’t here. Be your own advocate and get screened because there are many battles that cannot be won, but colon cancer isn’t one of them, it’s the most curable form of cancer if caught in time. Don’t die of embarrassment.
Photo courtesy of Melanie Dunea.