Someone saved Wenora Johnson’s life. Now she’s repaying the favor.

For some people, delaying a routine cancer screening during COVID was an inconvenience.

For Wenora Johnson of Joliet, 54, that delay, just six months, could have been deadly.

“I had three additional polyps,” Johnson, a three-time cancer survivor and Navy veteran, said. “And one was precancerous.”

After Johnson’s diagnosis of stage 3b colon cancer in 2011, Johnson learned she also has Lynch syndrome, a genetic syndrome with a predisposition to certain cancers -eendometrial and basal cell, in Johnson’s case. Johnson said her own doctor said Johnson’s cancer most likely began at age 30.

Over the last 10 years, Johnson has become a staunch advocate for colon cancer screening and colon cancer patients. She likes prevenintg “someone else from going through chemo or radiation or surgery to have part of their colon removed,” she said.

According to Johnson’s biography on the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute website, Johnson has submitted proclamation information to the state of Illinois each year to pronounce as Colorectal Awareness Month. Johnson recently received the proclamation for March 2021, she said.

The proclamation said colorectal cancer has no cure and is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths for men and women in the U.S. — and that people born in the 1990s have twice the risk of colon cancer and four times the risk of rectal cancer than people born in the 1950s.

It also said colon cancer diagnoses and deaths are higher “among racial and ethnic minorities.”

Even though “timely screening” can help prevent colorectal cancer, the number of colonoscopies decreased by 90 percent last year, due to the pandemic, the proclamation said. The American Cancer Society said colon cancer can spread before it shows any signs.

In 2020, an estimated 53,000 people died of colorectal cancer and more than 145,000 people were diagnosed with colorectal cancer, the proclamation said. The National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable wants “timely colorectal cancer screening rates” at 80% in every U.S. community, the proclamation also said.

Johnson herself would like to see Will County offer free colon cancer screenings – such as the FIT (fecal immunochemical test) – to people who can’t afford to be screened. She has a brother, age 44, with stage 4 colon cancer. He was diagnosed at age 39, she said.

“He’s still getting chemotherapy treatments every two weeks and probably will for the rest of his life,” Johnson said.

Even though she herself needs yearly colonoscopies, Johnson has also delayed them due to finances. One year her deductible for the colonoscopy was $300 and Johnson didn’t have it.

“So it put it (the colonoscopy) off for a year,” Johnson said.

To Johnson, this doesn’t make sense.

“Insurance companies should be glad to pay for colonoscopy than pay for cancer treatments, which ran me half a million dollars for six months-worth of treatment,” Johnson said.

Johnson said patients should ask their primary care physicians to help them find find financial resources if they need a procedure and can’t afford it. In the meantime, Johnson continues to advocate for patients. For instance, Johnson said her oncologist recommended her a review board for clinical trials for two local hospitals.

According to her biography on the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute website, Johnson has provided feedback to the College of American Pathologists. She’s also advocated on Capitol Hill and attended American Society of Clinical Oncology conferences, among other workshops and conferences.

She been a clinical trial curator for Fight CRC, consumer reviewer for the Department of Defense a PCORI ambassador, a Cancer Policy and Advocacy Team member for the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship and participant in the American Association for Cancer Research’s Scientist↔Survivor Program, her biography also said.

Johnson first became involved with Fight Colorectal Cancer in 2014 as a research advocate trainee.

“This, to me, is a lifetime of work. It’s been very therapeutic for me,” Johnson said. “And lifesaving for others.”