After losing his brother to colorectal cancer, “Today” host Craig Melvin turned grief into advocacy, raising millions and promoting lifesaving screenings.
Can you share your personal experience with colorectal cancer and how it has impacted your life?
My older brother, Lawrence, was diagnosed with late-stage colorectal cancer when he was 39. He was a Baptist minister, a father of two young children, and he played football in college. He didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, lived a reasonably healthy life, and started losing weight. Initially, the doctors thought it was an ulcer, and they thought maybe it was related to his diet, but he kept going back to the doctor. Finally, the third time, they suggested getting a CT scan, and they found a tumor the size of a tangerine in his colon. It had already metastasized at that point. As a result, both my younger brother and I went to get colonoscopies at the suggestion of the doctor, and Lawrence fought valiantly for four years. He was diagnosed at 39, and he died at 43.
During his fights, we became involved with the Colorectal Cancer Alliance because he wanted to use his battle, his struggle, to raise awareness, get more people screened, and raise money for screenings and research. It started when he was alive, and he asked that when he died, I would continue the work, and so we have. We’ve done a lot of stories over the years on the “Today” show to raise awareness about screenings, and we’ve highlighted new research. We started an annual charity event, and so far, we’ve raised just north of $3 million for screenings and research for colorectal cancer. It’s impacted my life negatively for a number of years, and now it’s impacted my life positively because I frequently hear from people who tell me that they got screened, or they encouraged a loved one to get screened, because of a story we did or an interview like this one.
What information do you feel is not commonly known about colorectal cancer that you believe can help save lives?
I don’t think a lot of folks realize that dying from colorectal cancer is largely preventable. If you get screened and, during the course of the colonoscopy, they find a benign tumor, or even a tumor that’s not benign, they zap it. Once they zap those polyps, the survival rate is north of 99%.
The idea is to just get more people screened. The guidance is 45 years or older, unless you have a family history or unless you have some preexisting conditions that might make you more susceptible to colorectal cancer. If more people knew that screening would prevent death from colorectal cancer, I think more people would get screened.
The reality is that there are now more options than there used to be. In addition to the colonoscopy, which is the gold standard, you have companies like Cologuard, where you basically send a stool sample off in a little box, drop it in the mail, and once they receive it, they send you your results, and you’re done. There are blood tests now that are also helping save lives. You have blood tests, you have at-home stool kits, you have colonoscopies — there are so many different tools in the toolbox now that weren’t there 20 years ago. I think that more people just need to know about them.
What proactive steps do you take for your own health and well-being that you recommend others take as well?
I’ve already had two colonoscopies. That’s pretty proactive. I encourage every 45-year-old person that I come in contact with to get a colonoscopy. Sometimes it leads to awkward conversations in elevators, but I’m okay with that. There’s also been some preliminary research done on the correlation between processed food and the rise in early-onset colorectal cancer, so I don’t eat a lot of processed meat. Additionally, I’ve worked to reduce the amount of microplastics I use. There’s been some research out of the Scandinavian countries that have looked at the correlation between our increased reliance on microplastics and the increased numbers of young people getting colorectal cancer, so we’ve stopped microwaving in plastic bowls, and we’re doing more in our household to try to reduce the amount of microplastics that we use.
