Craig Melvin of 'Today' Urges People to Talk about Colon Cancer Amid Brother's Cancer Battle

Craig Melvin of the "Today" show talked about his brother's battle with colon cancer and how he wants people to pay more attention to the subject.

Sicknesses and diseases are part of life's natural occurrences. Although some are more deadly than others, there are certain types of illnesses people battle with that are not openly discussed.

Craig Melvin of "Today" show is encouraging people to talk about cancer, specifically Colon Cancer, and this is due to his brother's struggle with the disease for quite a while.

Talking about his work with the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, Craig revealed that he hopes more people begin to talk about this form of cancer as its occurrence is increasingly alarming.

In discussion with People, Craig expressed that his first encounter with colon cancer was when his brother Lawrence Meadows who was 39-years old at the time, was said to have it. He also said:

"...Here's a guy who didn't drink, didn't smoke, lived a clean life, played football in college. He was 39 at the time..."

According to Craig Melvin, the experience caused him to start asking questions about it only to discover their grandmother had it, but it was not known because they never talked about it.

The diagnosis came in 2017, and Craig's brother Lawrence was said to have stage four colon cancer. After the diagnosis, Lawrence began working with the Colorectal Cancer Alliance to raise money for those who had been diagnosed.

There is no cure for stage four colon cancer.

Although the organization tries to do its best, Craig said it has been difficult because people were not comfortable enough to discuss their rectum much less talking about having cancer there.

He also stated that this was one of the reasons why it was challenging to raise money as it was not the kind of cancer people talked about. Highlighting the importance, Craig said:

"We have to talk about it. People need to listen to their bodies, especially men."

Asides from his brother's diagnosis, another reason for his interest in the disease is because there are higher colon and rectal cancer cases among African Americans than among other groups.

Craig admits that he wants his people to live as long and healthy as possible while emphasizing that because people were not open to talking about their rectum and colon, the silence killed them.

Back when Lawrence Meadow was diagnosed, he expressed that since there is no cure for stage four colon cancer except to monitor and check its growth while undergoing chemotherapy continually, he was determined to fight it with all he had.

In all, while Lawrence is doing his best to fight cancer, NBC correspondent Kristen Dahlgren recently revealed that she was cancer-free after undergoing eight rounds of chemotherapy following her diagnosis with breast cancer in 2016.