Eventually, he plans to step up to the plate
Mancini wants to advocate for colon cancer awareness
Now that he has shared his stage 3 colon cancer diagnosis and treatment story, Orioles star Trey Mancini wants to get through chemotherapy and hopefully return to full health before taking what seems like a natural next step: advocacy.
He said on a Zoom call with local reporters Wednesday that he wants to use his platform for awareness to help others detect colon cancer through routine physicals the way he did before it spreads throughout the body.
Michael Sapienza, CEO of the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, said advocacy from a platform such as Mancini’s can go a long way toward saving lives, especially if Mancini brings awareness to possible early intervention methods for the growing population of young Americans diagnosed with the disease.
“He can help the alliance and the entire colon cancer community really bring this to the forefront,” Sapienza said. “It doesn’t just affect old white men. It affects young adults like him, both men and women.
“We’re honestly seeing these cases of young onsets happen more and more. I can see him helping us with some sort of awareness campaign, either for young onset or the new screening age, serving on the Never Too Young advisory board as a distinguished member — there’s a lot of stuff.”
Sapienza said colorectal cancers don’t have as many visible spokespersons as other forms, mostly because patients have shied away from talking about it.
“I give Trey a lot of credit with coming forward with it and being really open to it, and I think the younger generation is now starting to be like that,” he said. “But colon cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer-related death for men and women combined, but yet you don’t hear a lot of people talking about it.”
Past celebrities involved in awareness efforts include television news host Katie Couric, actor and musician Terrence Howard, and Today Show host Craig Melvin. In 2017, then-Ravens tight end Maxx Williams featured the Colorectal Cancer Alliance while participating in the “My Cause, My Cleats” campaign that season in honor of his uncle, who died that