Edel Blumberg was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 47. Despite undergoing surgery and chemotherapy, the disease returned three years later. After another course of treatment, Edel founded the Semi-Colon Club, an organization dedicated to spreading awareness about colon cancer prevention, screening and treatment. Or, as Edel likes to say, colon cancer is preventable, treatable and beatable.

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Transcript

My name is Edel Blumberg. I am age 55. I was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer five years ago, my second bout with colon cancer. Well, the semi colon club is the name of my organization. I started this organization approximately three and a half, four years ago, as I was recovering from my second bout with colon cancer.

When I went in for surgery, I wrote a couple goodbye letters, one to my best friend and one to my wife, because I was pretty certain that after my first time, I had this bad feeling they were going to open me up and close me back up and say there’s nothing we can do. once I got through that, and then once I climbed the mountain of going through the chemotherapy again, which was pretty devastatingly difficult, uh, that’s when the revelation hit me that I made it and I have the power.

I have the ability to get through that and I got to transfer that to others. So the Semicolon Club is designed to spread the word, outreach, awareness, education about colon cancer. We have a website where I do a lot of interaction with people that might Google colon cancer or look for information for organizations, non profit organizations that are involved in colon cancer.

I have a walk once a year where I raise money. to help me do some of the things in marketing and spreading that word about colon cancer, whether it be speaking at different functions for the American Cancer Society, for Johns Hopkins Hospital. I spoke at National Institute of Health, just trying to get the word out, spread the word about colon cancer, that it’s preventable, beatable, and treatable.

It’s away from me because I’ve survived two bouts and eight years of doing this. But being able to give back and potentially help others, um, not make the same kind of mistakes that I have made leading up to this point in my life, is, is very important to me. Uh, I have found in a lot of my talks and reaching out to people or reaching out to me, there are a lot of people that don’t want to talk about it.

And I’m on a different path. Mine’s very open, and I want people to hear the story and know all the good and the bad. Uh, for those people out there that are not comfortable discussing it, it is something that’s private, 11 million other people out there like yourself that have survived, and it’s okay.