I Am…Planting a Flag
On Monday morning, while walking in Washington, DC., I passed by thousands of small blue flags on the National Mall. From a distance, it looked like a wave of color. Up close, I realized they were linked to colorectal cancer.
In all 27,000 flags were planted there for Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. One for every person between the ages of 20 and 49 projected to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer by 2030.
People aren't even covered for colon-cancer screening until age 45. Yet here are over 27,000 futures interrupted. Thousands of families whose lives change overnight.
At Smart Patients, colorectal cancer is often discussed in language that takes time to learn. Members talk about 5-FU, oxaliplatin, irinotecan, capecitabine. Drug combinations and treatment sequences and clinical trials that feel impossibly technical to the newly diagnosed.
We do have a glossary. But other conversations need no translation:
Those simple, human, urgent questions cut through every acronym and treatment protocol.
Standing among the blue flags, it's easy to understand the message. Rising incidence in younger adults. Projected diagnoses. Mortality curves trending in the wrong direction.
Of course, the numbers are important. They make the case to legislators and funders. They move budgets.
But they don't tell you what it feels like to stop chemotherapy because the side effects have become unbearable — and then wonder, what comes next. They don't capture the courage it takes to ask a question when you're frightened and searching for anything that might help.
Patient communities do.
Every story shared about treatment, survivorship, or caregiving adds texture to the data.
From March 1-14, 2026, over 27,400 blue flags are displayed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as part of the "United in Blue" installation by Fight Colorectal Cancer. This exhibit, installed by volunteers, highlights the urgent need for awareness.
If you are looking for conversation with fellow advocates, join our community.