Colon cancer cases trending younger: Michigan mom of 2 shares why routine screening is important

Younger people are getting diagnosed with colon cancer at alarming rates. In 70% of cases, patients have no family or genetic history. What's even scarier is many patients had no symptoms before being diagnosed. Brooke Wessman has spent a lot of time in infusion bags. She also worked at the hospital for more than two decades. In fact, she helped implement the system that reminds people to get screened, an alert she says saved her life. “Had I not gotten this who knows where I would be,” Wessman said. Wessman is a 45-year-old mom of two teen girls. She was feeling fine when she went for a routine colon cancer screening. “I’m a healthy person, I eat well, I exercise, so the fact that they came back and said I had cancer, it was a complete shock,” she said. Asked if she had symptoms, she said, “No symptoms.” Wessman was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer.