40-foot colon found in area

The Colossal Colon® displayed at Healthy Living Expo Baptist Health System will host a wacky and educational exhibit that may eventually save a life. The Colossal Colon® will be displayed at the Healthy Living Expo at the Knoxville Convention Center from February 3-5. This exhibit is a 40-foot-long, four-foot tall, crawl-through replica of the human colon designed to educate the public about colorectal cancer. It includes examples of healthy colon tissue, several non-cancerous diseases of the colon, polyps, and various stages of colorectal cancer. Molly McMaster, a colon cancer survivor, who was diagnosed on her 23rd birthday, created the Colossal Colon®. It was to be a memorial, dedicated to her friend, Amanda Sherwood Roberts, who lost her battle with colon cancer at the age of 27. Colorectal cancer-cancer of the colon and rectum-is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States for men and women combined. It is the only type of cancer that can be prevented, and it’s curable 90 percent of the time when diagnosed early. “It is the cancer that nobody wants to talk about,” said Jay A. Young, M.D., a colon and rectal surgeon with East Tennessee Colon-Rectal Surgery Associates and Baptist Hospital. “We want to make a difference in East Tennessee by providing this unique educational opportunity that we believe can help people prevent cancer and encourage early detection through screenings such as colonoscopies.” Almost 150,000 people will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer this year, and over 55,000 of them will die. In Tennessee alone, it is estimated that there were 3,470 new cases of colorectal cancer and 1,340 people will die. The Healthy Living Expo will be open during normal exposition hours, Thursday and Friday from 9:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m.