Wear blue on Friday to raise colon cancer awareness

Last Updated: 2015-03-05

By Daniel Gaitan

(Reuters Health) - Advocates hope that people with colorectal cancer and their caregivers will dress in blue on Friday to raise awareness about the disease.

Each year on the first Friday in March, supporters hold "Dress in Blue Day" to encourage more Americans to be tested for the disease. In 2000, President Clinton designated March as National Colon Cancer Awareness Month. Blue is the long-established color.

Andrea Shepherd, executive director of the Colon Cancer Prevention Project, a Kentucky-based nonprofit working to eliminate preventable colon cancer death, hopes that all health care organizations participate in the day.

"Wear blue and talk about colon cancer. Talk about screening, talk about prevention of this disease, talk with your family and ask if they've been screened or if the disease runs in your family," she told Reuters Health.

Shepherd, a former reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal, joined the organization after her father died from the disease at age 57.