Feb 23, 2016 By Darla Fike 3 min read

I was recently diagnosed with stage four colon cancer that has spread to my liver. I have never smoked, drank alcohol, done drugs or had a family history of any cancer so I was shocked when I found I had it.

I had never had a colonoscopy. I didn’t have insurance until last year, and the test is very expensive. I could not find any help to pay for the test. After I was diagnosed, the doctors told me that I should have my thre sons get a colonoscopy because they are in their mid 30s and my oldest is 40. They all have medical insurance but when they went to the doctor they were told either they didn’t need the test until they turn 50 or their insurance company would not pay for it until they were 50.

I have been doing a lot of research online and have found that people are being diagnosed with colon cancer in their 20s and 30s more often now and that people in these age groups need to be tested, especially if there is a close family member that has it. It is so important to be tested and catch colon cancer early because if it is found while still a polyp or just in the colon it is curable with just surgery. If it is not found until it has spread then you have to go through chemotherapy, and surgery or other treatments. There is no way to know if these things will work. So many people are in treatment , some survive for five years or more but others die much faster.

March is Colon Cancer Awareness month. We need to make our lawmakers aware of the risk of not being able to get tested at a younger age if it is called for. We need to find the money not only to cure cancer but to help people get tested early to prevent cancer. All the insurance companies care about is their profits. We have heard about this new program that Vice President Joe Biden is in charge of to cure cancer but no one is trying to find a way for people to get tested to prevent it. A cure would be fantastic, but it would also be fantastic if we could catch the disease in its early stages so that people could be cured without all the expense and suffering.

It is so hard to live in a constant state of uncertainty as to how long you have to live and be with your loved ones. There are a lot of questions. Who is going to take care of your family if you don’t make it? How much is treatment going to cost? How many surgeries are you are going to need? How much chemo you are going to be able to tolerate? No one should have to go through this and if everyone had the ability to get tested a lot of suffering would be avoided and lives would be saved.

Darla Fike is a resident of Uniontown.