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WILTON — Molly McMaster, a resident of Wilton, is celebrating Colon Cancer Awareness Month and 20 years cancer free with the release of her new book “One Drop of Rain: Creating a Wave of Colon Cancer Awareness.” March is colon cancer awareness month.
2019 is also celebrating the 15th year of her original creation and release of the Colander; a calendar and now magazine chronicling the lives of the growing number of individuals under 50 with colon cancer.
McMaster was diagnosed with colon cancer on her 23rd birthday in 1999 and since then she made it her mission to bring awareness to the disease; “it’s not an old white men’s disease anymore,” she says.
“I decided to start doing crazy things to raise awareness because I was told I was the only one in the country that was so young,” McMaster said.
In 2002 she built a 40-foot- long colon that toured the country that has now found its home in Texas at Houston Health Museum as the Colossal Colon. She herself has toured the country roller blading on inline skates from New York to Colorado in 2000, calling it the Road to Recovery. McMaster has even appeared on the TODAY Show, and was interviewed by Katie Couric.
“All of our projects, we try to use the word colon because it makes people say it. People don’t usually want to talk about colon cancer let alone say the word,” she said.
“On the last day of the cross- country skate, this stranger signed in on my guest book and he said ‘Molly, one drop of rain ripples the entire pond, you’ll never know the lives you’ve touched,’” McMaster said. This is the inspiration of her book title.
McMaster is also the founder of the Colon Club that was created in 2003. The Colon Club’s mission is to connect young adults diagnosed with colorectal cancer so they never have to feel alone.
“I realized this organization, that I was afraid was going to fall without me, is going like a freight train now and there are so many people involved and its kind of, for lack of a better word, its truly like a legacy, to see what its become and having these other people involved. I don’t see it stopping anytime soon,” she said. Although she considers the release of her book, ‘hanging up her hat’ as far as the ‘crazy’ projects go, “if anyone came up with a crazy idea that I can still do, definitely I’d do it,” McMasters aid.
