Like the 43,000 French people who are affected by colon cancer every year, actress Clémentine Célarié has had to face the disease.
- The colon and the rectum constitute what is called the large intestine, that is to say the last part of the digestive tract.
- About 40% of cancers affect the rectum and 60% the colon.
“It’s not because you have cancer that you die. Sometimes people look at you as if you were dead, but no, we are not dead, we are here and that’s it”.
A “need for truth”
Invited to the RTL Petit Matin program on Thursday November 4, actress Clémentine Célarié revealed that she had faced colon cancer. Now recovered, she wants to testify to the reality of her illness, which she hid for a long time for fear of the gaze of others. “The truth, I wanted to tell it all. The truth, it makes you move forward. In any case, I needed it. If we stay in hypocrisy, of course we risk nothing but it’s a shame, because it does not help to cure. The truth, it can cure”, explains the 64-year-old French star. To get out of the silence, Clémentine Célarié even wrote a book, which has just been released: The forbidden words. “I needed to speak to someone, to speak to the public as a friend or a confidant”, she continued on the airwaves.
Each year in France, 43,000 new cases of colon cancer are diagnosed. Health authorities estimate that four out of every hundred men and three out of every hundred women will develop one in their lifetime before the age of 75. It is the second deadliest cancer, with nearly 17,500 deaths per year, but if caught early it is curable in 9 out of 10 cases.
Screening from 50 years old
Three colon cancer screening methods are recommended from the age of 50:
– Stool analysis, to be done every year.
– Sigmoidoscopy, to be done every 5 years.
– Colonoscopy, to be done every 10 years.
First symptoms
Changes in bowel habits (constipation or diarrhea, for example), blood in the stool, intestinal gas, stomach cramps or pain, feeling that the bowels never empty completely, or constantly having the urge to defecating, extreme fatigue and unexplained weight loss can be early symptoms of colon cancer. Feeling them should lead to seeing a doctor as soon as possible.
