CABELL COUNTY, W.Va. — A Cabell County resident will be featured in a rotating public service announcement to raise awareness for colorectal cancer.
Kellie Hoffman will be one of 25 people featured in the rotating message in Time Square in New York City. Fight Colorectal Cancer, a national organization, is running the messages as part of its “One Million Strong” movement.
Hoffman has become an advocate for colorectal cancer, the second deadliest form of cancer in the United States with 50,000 deaths a year. Hoffman said her mother died of the disease during her third battle with the disease.
“The first time was in 2005. My mom was very active. She liked to go out and shop and was very active with her friends,” she said. “She started not going anywhere, then she started not leaving her house.”
Hoffman said her mother thought it was hemorrhoids, but a doctor informed her it was stage IV cancer.
“They said at that point the tumor had been growing for about 10 years,” she said.
Cancer returned to Hoffman’s mother in 2009, spreading to the liver. It returned again in 2014 to her lungs and liver, and she died in April of that year.
“She really never let it get her down until clear from the end, and she was just such a fighter,” Hoffman said. “I think that’s why she did so well.”
According to Fight Colorectal Cancer, colorectal cancer, one in 20 people are diagnosed with the disease, yet 90 percent of cases are curable. Fight Colorectal Cancer recommends screening beginning at 50 years old.
“It’s really not that bad,” Hoffman said of a colonoscopy. “It’s like having the stomach flu.”
The campaign will launch Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. during the NASDAQ opening bell ceremony in New York.