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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Crohns and Colitis Walk


On September 13th, 2008 in Buffalo, NY, Yolanda Johnson and I, Courtney Belluccio, from Campus Events will walk to fight Crohns and Colitis.  We are walking with the Crohns and Colitis Foundation (CCFA) to increase awareness, raise money, and find cures for digestive diseases. 

Approximately 1.4 million Americans have Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.  These painful and unpredictable diseases of the digestive tract leave many people not knowing when their next hospital stay may be or when they may miss a day of work or their son’s wedding, or even their own, even after forty years of research. 

Crohns disease is an inflammatory condition that affects the digestive tract, characterized by active periods, known as flare-ups, followed by periods of remission.  Crohn’s can cause diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, loss of appetite, and weight loss.   More than half of all people who live with Crohn’s will need to have surgery at some point to treat the disease for fistulas, abscesses, strictures or resections. Crohn’s is characterized by chronic inflammation in one or multiple areas of the gastrointestinal tract.  Inflammation is the body’s response to an abnormal physical, chemical, or biological stimulation such as injury or infection.  Complex reactions in the affected area produce heat, redness, swelling, and pain as the body works to heal an injury or destroy an infection. 

Ulcerative colitis is a disease that causes inflammation and sores, called ulcers, in the lining of the rectum and colon.  Ulcers form where inflammation has killed the cells that usually line the colon, then bleed and produce pus.  Inflammation in the colon also causes the colon to empty frequently, causing diarrhea. 

In both crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, evidence suggests that either the body’s inflammatory response is triggered when it shouldn’t be, or is triggered appropriately but fails to turn itself off after it has completed its job.  Typically these Bowel Diseases appear in people between the ages of 15 to 20. 

If you would like to join us in the fight you can either pledge money or walk with us.  More than 83 percent of every dollar raised directly supports research, education and support initiatives. 

For more information on Crohn’s & Colitis please go to "https://www.ccfa.org. 

Courtney Belluccio
Campus Events
08/19/2008