“People Are Afraid to Talk About It Because of Where It Is”: Justine Almada Talks Anal Cancer Awareness

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Justine Almada is the executive director and co-founder of the Anal Cancer Foundation. She took up the cause after losing her mother to anal cancer. After their mom was diagnosed, Justine and her siblings were really shocked to find that there had been no advances in anal cancer treatments in several decades. Justine attributes that to lack of research, and people being ashamed to discuss the disease.

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“Many people are afraid to tell their work colleagues, their family members, even their children, what kind of cancer they have — simply because it’s a part of the body that people don’t like to talk about, the anal canal,” Justine said. “We all have the anal canal and we all use it everyday, so it’s time to move on from the stigma.”

With the Anal Cancer Foundation, Justine and her siblings have worked towards investing in novel scientific research to ensure that people who are diagnosed with anal cancer in the future have more options than their mother did.

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