2024-09-22 04:00:00
Having survived colorectal cancer at the age of 26, a young woman from Quebec decided to devote a large part of her life to creating a foundation to raise awareness of the risks of digestive diseases, regardless of age.
“Colorectal cancer is often associated with colonoscopy and therefore with the age of fifty. However, it has been the third most diagnosed cancer in Canada for several years and doctors are noticing that more and more young people are affected,” explains Sarah-Line Beaulieu, a 32-year-old woman who survived the disease.
Sarah-Line Beaulieu wants to break down the stigma associated with colorectal cancer and other digestive diseases through her foundation. Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
Stunned
She admits that for a long time she ignored the symptoms related to the mass growing in the tissues of her large intestine, such as the presence of blood in her stools.
Then “in great shape” and at the beginning of her professional career, Sarah-Line Beaulieu discussed the symptoms she was dealing with with her doctor. He recommended that she have a stool test to determine if it contained occult blood.
“A few weeks later, I was told that I had stage three colorectal cancer and that things didn’t look good going forward. I was stunned,” the assistant director of IA Financial Group remembers with pain.
Digestive Foundation Executive Director Sarah-Line Beaulieu is a survivor of stage three colorectal cancer, which she was diagnosed with in April 2018. Photo courtesy of Sarah-Line Beaulieu Vincent Desbiens
After his diagnosis in April 2018, the following months flew by at high speed, between surgical operations and chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments.
“My body responded really well to the treatments and when it came time to have part of my colon removed, the mass had reduced a lot, so it went well,” says the woman who completed her remission in 2023.
Vocation
Once she had recovered, Sarah-Line Beaulieu was just waiting for the green light from the doctors to pay for a “cancer free party“, a feast filled with foods that were forbidden to her, like sushi, and that she dreamed of. However, her plans have changed.
“I realized that I wanted to do my part and there was no colorectal cancer foundation. I talked to my radiation oncologist about it and she suggested that I start a hospital fund. We did a fundraiser and raised $40,000!”
This first experience gave the young thirty-something the philanthropy bug. She joined forces with the doctors at the Saint-François d’Assise hospital who “saved her life”, and, over the course of the projects, several hundred thousand dollars have been raised since 2019.
During the first edition of the Digestive Evening, a charity event organized to benefit research into digestive cancers, Sarah-Line Beaulieu (center) and her team raised $509,000 in 2023. Photo from Facebook – Digestive Foundation
Provincial aim
Now surrounded by a group of young people who have survived digestive cancer, the 32-year-old wants to expand the impact of her initiative across the province. That’s how the Digestive Foundation was born, this spring.
In the coming months, the non-profit organization hopes, among other things, to launch a national prevention campaign related to colorectal cancer screening.
“The government launched a screening program last year that is accessible on Clic Santé, but which remains little known. We want to help as many people as possible throughout Quebec and encourage the population to get screened,” concludes Sarah-Line Beaulieu.
Le cancer colorectal
Second leading cause of cancer death in men and third in women; Fourth most commonly diagnosed form of cancer in Canada in 2024, after several years in third place; 66% chance of survival after five years in men, 67% in women; Can be detected by stool analysis for microscopic occult blood, followed by colonoscopy.
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