Q&A: Blue Lights Campaign spreads ‘urgency’ of message to screen for colorectal cancer
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Over the past 10 years, the Blue Lights Campaign has illuminated in blue more than 30 iconic landmarks in Philadelphia and beyond to promote the importance of screening during Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.
“I want people that walk through Philadelphia in early March to feel wrapped in blue,” Marianne T. Ritchie, MD, founder and director of the Blue Lights Campaign and clinical associate professor of medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, told Healio. “When they see so many buildings that are blue, they’re going to realize there’s an urgency to the message and ask, ‘What is all this blue for?’ Hopefully, it will get people to think about screening [for CRC], even if it’s just a stool test.”
Source: Marianne T. Ritchie, MD
As a leading advocate for over 30 years, Ritchie has taken a special interest in CRC prevention since she trained at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and participated in research that led to the National Polyp Study. She created the Pink Plus triple-cancer screening program for women in 2012, which bundles a mammogram, gynecologic exam and CRC screening in one visit, and two years later founded the Blue Lights Campaign, a registered nonprofit organization.
During the first few weeks of CRC Awareness Month, several local, well-known Philadelphia buildings shine with blue lights to bolster screening awareness. In 2017, the campaign was honored with ACG’s SCOPY Award for achievement in community engagement, education and awareness efforts for CRC prevention.
In a Healio interview exclusive, Ritchie shares more about the Blue Lights Campaign, the importance of CRC awareness and screening and how to become involved.
Healio: How and why did you start the Blue Lights Campaign?
Ritchie: About 10 years ago, I called the local PECO energy company, which agreed to display the message, “Colonoscopy Saves Lives” on its building.
After they put that up for me, I thought it was way too easy and started calling other well-known businesses and landmarks in the area. A couple of years later, I had more than 30 buildings in Philadelphia in blue during the first week in March.
As the campaign grew, I decided to make it an entity: the Blue Lights Campaign. The whole point is to get the word out, and when people visit the website they learn the screening age has dropped to 45. The other big messages are that it is equal among men and women, it is happening in a much younger population, and African Americans have a 20% increased risk for developing CRC and a 40% higher risk of dying from it.
Healio: How has the campaign expanded through the years?
Ritchie: Some years ago, I introduced the Blue Lights Campaign at the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg, which now also shines blue every March. Later, with the help of the Lieutenant Governors’ Association, we invited every other state capitol building to participate.
We also try to partner with other national organizations, with the goal of getting at least one building in every major city to turn blue during CRC Awareness Month.
Healio: What are your goals for the campaign?
Ritchie: We got the institutional message out, but I want it to be a grassroots campaign; I want it to be person-to-person. For the past 4 or 5 years, we’ve invited people to send pictures of themselves in blue, or to put a strand of blue lights on their home or business so we all share the message that CRC is common and often deadly, but preventable. Colon cancer starts as a polyp and with colonoscopy, we could remove a polyp before it becomes cancer.
My big thing is making it personal and sharing these conversations with your friends and family. It should not be embarrassing to ask if someone’s ever had a colonoscopy or if they have a family history of CRC or colon polyps that may cause them to get screened at age 40 or younger.
Plus, it’s essential to learn your own family history to determine whether you should begin screening before age 45. It could save your life!
Healio: How important is it to continue increasing awareness about CRC prevention and screening year-round?
Ritchie: Having done more than 10,000 colonoscopies without any issues, I’ve convinced a lot of people to have a colonoscopy. When somebody shies away because they think the prep is annoying, I say it’s not nearly as annoying as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. It could save your life and that’s what I want to be my legacy.
The other big message right now is that smoking and alcohol increase the risk for CRC. Limit alcohol consumption to the recommended maximum amount — one serving a day for women and two drinks a day for men — and people should know that smoking is dangerous for many reasons, including increasing the risk for CRC as well as multiple other cancers.
I stress that these are the things you can control; you can’t pick your genes and you can’t control your environment, but you can tell yourself you will drink in moderation, not smoke or vape, and will get up and walk around. Control the controllable and limit your number of regrets.
March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, but these messages are important all year long.
Healio: During CRC Awareness Month, what else should our readers know about screening and the Blue Lights Campaign?
Ritchie: Make yourself a promise that you are going to get screened. Even if it is just a stool test, that is better than nothing.
Take the hand of even one other person and get them to screening which is the whole idea of making this a grassroots campaign. Put blue lights on the door of your home or business. It’s everybody’s personal responsibility to remind their family and friends; if you really love them, it is your job and your obligation.
Healio: How can others get involved and promote the Blue Lights Campaign?
Ritchie: Send me your stories and I will share them on-air during my radio show, Your Radio Doctor on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT. Participate by hanging a strand of blue lights or dressing in blue. We invite you to send us a photo at info@bluelightscampaign.com to be featured on our website.
Wondering what the city of Philadelphia looks like “wrapped in blue?” Check out the 2024 Blue Lights Campaign in action here!
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