THUNDER BAY — An exhibit in the northwestern Ontario hub, Ont.
is inviting people to walk through a giant colon – all in the name of bringing awareness to one of the most common cancers in the country. Colorectal cancer is one of the most preventable with early screening, and last month Ontario lowered its routine colorectal cancer screening age from 50 to 45. The exhibit, set up by the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, opened on Friday at Intercity Shopping Centre.
“It’s really just to bring attention and awareness to the public. The prevention and screening program with the health-care facility will be set up here for the next week during regular mall hours,” indicated Dr. Jordan Green, the Colorectal Cancer Screening Lead for northwestern Ontario. The giant colon exhibit is a pink, inflatable tube featuring visual representations and information about health alarm in the colon – all to educate people about colon health.
“I've already had about 10 people coming to me asking me questions about colon cancer screening [since setting up].
“We really want to highlight the fact that the province as of July 1st has lowered the age range from 50 for average screening down to 45. So we're really trying to promote screening in that 45 to 50 age group because they've not been captured for colon cancer screening before,” confirmed Green. She shared a concerning trend they’ve been seeing in patients under the age of 50 is a more rapid rise in the incidence of colon cancer, whereas figures are dropping among the 50 to 74 age group across most industrialized countries. “People don’t think about their colon health until something is wrong, but the best time to screen is when you feel perfectly healthy,” declared Tarja Heiskanen, manager of prevention and screening clinical services at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC). “The Giant Colon gives us a unique opportunity to bring screening information to life and have conversations about colon cancer in a way that feels more approachable.” In the short time the exhibit has been up, Green indicated it’s fantastic to see how it catches people's attention, prompting them to learn more about something that can be preventable. “I've already had about 10 people coming to me asking me questions about colon cancer screening [since setting up]. So I think I'm really expecting a high level of engagement, which is exactly what we want.” Green indicated it is normal for people to be embarrassed or nervous about talking about colorectal health, but that it’s a completely normal part of health. “We see this every day in the endoscopy unit. But listen, everybody poops. Everybody has a colon. We're trying to demystify this, this is very normal. It's a part of your health. And the sooner you know we can detect something, the more likely we can actually cure your cancer,” declared Green. The Giant Colon exhibit is on display at Intercity Shopping Centre from August 7 until the 16th. Jasmine Kabatay is an Anishinaabe journalist from Seine River First Nation in northwestern Ontario. She is based in the Lakehead region and has also written for the Toronto Star, and VICE News. It is a priority for CBC to create products that are accessible to all in Canada including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive challenges. Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered onCBC Gem..
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📍 Source: CBC News Thunder Bay · By: CBC News Staff · 🗓️ August 08, 2026 · 🏠 ThunderBay.Online
