Schools usually wouldn't look kindly upon one of their administrators flashing some skin as a calendar model.

But in the case of Trish Lannon, vice principal of West Friendship Elementary, her turn as babe of the month has only elicited cheers, support and encouragement.

Lannon, a colon cancer survivor, took part in the 2009 Colondar, a fundraising and educational tool containing shots of 13 colon cancer survivors displaying the surgical scars on their stomachs, along with their stories.

"This is a wonderful way of being an advocate and getting the word out," she said.

The Elkridge resident beat out hundreds of applicants to participate in the annual activity, run by the Colon Club, a national organization that aims to help those afflicted by colon cancer and spread awareness of the disease -- the second leading cause of death in the United States.

"The world seems covered in pink," said Lannon, referring to the highly visible breast cancer campaigns. "But there are so many other types of cancer that people aren't as aware of."

Colon cancer awareness is lower than it should be, especially among those in the under-50 category, Lannon says. Most people afflicted by the disease belong to the 50-and-older category. But there are many younger individuals who receive the diagnosis. Lannon was 37 when she found out.

On a Friday night in March 2007, Lannon ended up a heap on the floor after experiencing excruciating foot and leg cramps. Her husband begged her to go to the hospital. She refused. She awoke to a fever of 104 and passed out later that day. Still, her husband's plea to take her to the emergency room was ignored. Lannon wrote the symptoms off as merely flu-related. After a not-so-peaceful night of sleep, she felt a severe pain in her right side. Confused, she turned to the Internet and subsequently suspected a case of appendicitis. Her husband finally received permission to take his wife to the ER.

After a series of blood tests, the staff at Howard County General discovered that Lannon had lost two-thirds of her blood volume. Within 24 hours, five blood transfusions got her blood back to a safe level. The high fever was still present, and cerebral chills soon followed.

After multiple CT scans, X-rays, and sonograms, doctors found a four-centimeter cyst on one of Lannon's ovaries and "something troubling" on the right colon. Soon afterward, the right ovary and fallopian tube were removed, along with the appendix, cecum (a pouch connected to the ascending colon), 6 inches of the ascending colon and 15 lymph nodes.

On March 9 -- she remembers the date clearly -- the surgeon broke the news to her. She had colon cancer at stage 3C, a level before the most serious one, stage 4.

Lannon underwent chemotherapy from April 2007 to late November of that year.

During the treatment, Lannon kept working, with the aid of a chemo pack worn during the day, which injected the treatment into her body via a tube and needle.

Soon, Miss March 2009 will be considered 1 year NED (No Evidence of Disease).

And, how does Lannon plan to celebrate?

She's going to Disney World.

It's something her family's been meaning to do for quite a while.

Lannon and her husband "realized with cancer that if you keep putting things off, it may never happen."

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user comments (1)

user cheerforcanes says...

I have read her story before and each time I am touched by what she has had to go through and what her family has had to go through. I just Googled the Colondar and bought one. The stories of each survivor are amazing.

Posted 6:35 PM, 11.16.08

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