Jessica Weston

At 46, I did the FIT screening test, and it came back positive.

My doctor referred me to gastroenterology for a colonoscopy, and they found four small under 5mm polyps that they removed that day, and one large one they couldn’t remove that day.

I went back in a month later to have the large one removed. I received pathology a few days later diagnosing me with stage I rectal cancer.

I was moved to stage IIIa after surgery when 1 out of the 23 lymph nodes taken had cancer cells.

I honestly didn’t feel like I had symptoms that would have been rectal cancer. I had the occasional IBS flare-up that had been diagnosed 25 years earlier: Nothing out of my ordinary.

I was just lucky it was really early stages and that so far with surgery and chemo, I am currently NED.

Screenings are so easy and absolutely nothing to be scared of or ashamed of.

Something members of Congress need to know is that screening should be easier to obtain and happen earlier than age 45.