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Young Colorectal Cancer Survivors on a Mission to Educate Others in Unconventional Way
12/02/2004
Erika Kratzer was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer at the age of 22 -- and was not given much hope that she would survive. At the time, she never would have guessed that one day she would go to extraordinary lengths to educate others about the disease that could have taken her life. Erika, now 26 and cancer-free, is featured as Miss November in the 2005 Colondar, a 12-month wall calendar of beautiful young female colorectal cancer survivors. The 2005 Colondar, which is dedicated to Erika, is the newest project of The Colon Club, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating about colorectal cancer in out-of-the-box ways. Each month of the 2005 Colondar features a young woman along with a short biography chronicling her individual experience with colorectal cancer. Last year, Erika met Molly McMaster, co-founder of The Colon Club and Miss February in the 2005 Colondar. Molly was on tour with another Colon Club project, the Colossal Colon®, a 40-foot long, four-foot tall crawl-through model of the human colon that has been traveling around the United States since 2002 to educate people of all ages about colorectal cancer. "When I met Erika, we chatted for an hour or so and somewhere in the middle of the conversation, the idea came up that we both thought it would be fun to make a calendar of young survivors showing their surgical scars," said Molly. "Eventually, Erika became Miss November, and The Colon Club decided to dedicate the 2005 Colondar to her because she is such an amazing person." "I thought the Colondar was an awesome idea, but I didn't know if it would ever really happen," said Erika. "Then Molly told me that we were actually going to go for it, and I said I would do it. At first I was a little self-conscious about modeling in my bathing suit, but then I realized that I just had to get over it because we have to get the public's attention about colorectal cancer." In July of this year, Erika and Molly met ten other young survivors when they all came together in upstate New York for the 2005 Colondar photo shoot. This week, the 2005 Colondar rolls off the presses and into the homes and offices of thousands of people. The price of 2005 Colondar is $15.00. Visit www.colondar.com to order your very own 2005 Colondar! Source: The Colon Club
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