Get Your Rear In Gear Raises $18,000

The Get Your Rear In Gear Arkansas Family Fun Run and Walk held March 12 in Hot Springs raised approximately $18,000 for colon cancer screening awareness and programs in Arkansas.

The event, which was sponsored by CHI St. Vincent and featured a team of Hot Springs co-workers, featured 184 runners and walkers.

Across the country, colon cancer claims more than 50,000 lives in the U.S. every year. But remarkably, this disease is preventable with regular screening and very treatable if caught in its early stages. According to the National Colorectal Cancer Round Table and the American Cancer Society, Arkansas’ screening rates for colon cancer sit at 59%, ranking 46th nationally. If screening rates can be raised to 80% in the next two years, almost 3,500 colon cancer cases could be prevented and over 2,500 deaths from the disease could be prevented by the year 2030 in Arkansas alone.

More information about colon cancer screening and prevention can be found at coloncancercoalition.org/get-educated/.

Check out our CHI St. Vincent photo gallery.