Spartanburg Colon Cancer Survivor To Throw First Pitch at Drive Game
June 13, 2012
GREENVILLE, SC – June 12, 2012 – Dr. Karry Guillory took the referral for a colonoscopy from his family physician and hurried outside to theparking lot. Guillory tossed the paper into the back seat of his car and forgot about it.
Fortunately, Guillory’s wife, Chandra, discovered the document andconvinced her husband to set an appointment. Her persistence savedGuillory’s life.
“I had no family history of colon cancer and no symptoms, so I wasn’tabout to undergo a colonoscopy,” said Guillory, a Spartanburg Countymagistrate court judge who formerly worked as a senior administrator atUSC Upstate and as a deputy director with the state Department ofJuvenile Justice. “Many men, like me, were brought up in a culture ofmachoism, and they won’t go to a doctor for a test. Fear is anotherfactor, but a colonoscopy is not as bad as many people think.”
To appease his wife, a reluctant Guillory, then 50, went in for thecolonoscopy last spring. He was stunned when his doctor found coloncancer. Guillory underwent surgery and had 6 inches of his colonremoved. A year later, he is cancer-free and on a mission to convinceothers to be screened for the deadly but often preventable disease.
Guillory will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Greenville’s Fluor Field on Sunday, June 24, during the Greenville Drive’s “Drive OutColon Cancer” baseball game, sponsored by BlueCross BlueShield of SouthCarolina. The Drive will wear special blue jerseys (blue is the “color”for colon cancer), and blue bases will be used. The Drive plays theCharleston RiverDogs at 4 p.m.
Fans will receive information about colon cancer prevention. They alsowill have an opportunity to visit with physicians from GastroenterologyAssociates, P.A, of Greenville, who will staff an “Ask a Doctor” station on the stadium’s concourse.
Colon cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in SouthCarolina and nationally, but it is largely preventable. Regularscreenings allow doctors to remove polyps – precancerous growths on theinside lining of the colon – before they become cancer. Screenings arerecommended beginning at age 50, and earlier for those with a familyhistory of the disease or other risk factors.
“Many men and women, but especially men, are reluctant to have acolonoscopy or really any kind of screening,” Guillory said. “We, asmen, have to get beyond that. Colon cancer is a silent assassin. Peopleoften won’t notice any symptoms until the cancer has spread and it’s too late.”
The Drive Out Colon Cancer game is part of the ongoing “Love Your Colon” awareness campaign (www.LoveYourColon.org). BlueCross created thecampaign in collaboration with the South Carolina GastroenterologyAssociation, the University of South Carolina’s Center for Colon CancerResearch, CVS Caremark and Genentech to improve screening rates.
About BlueCross
Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., and operating in South Carolina formore than 65 years, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina(www.SouthCarolinaBlues.com) is an independent licensee of the BlueCross and Blue Shield Association. The only South Carolina-owned andoperated health insurance carrier, BlueCross BlueShield of SouthCarolina comprises 47 companies involved in health insurance services,the U.S. DoD health program and Medicare contracts, other insurance andemployee benefits services, and a philanthropic foundation that fundsprograms to improve health care and access to health care for SouthCarolinians.
