Community health festival March 31 in Bryan

Everyone’s invited to a free community-wide health festival Saturday, March 31 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Neal Recreation Center in Bryan.

The festival includes a focus on colorectal cancer awareness. Community health workers (promotores) will be available for private health risk assessments for colon cancer, as the disease is often preventable and, when detected early, highly curable. An inflatable Prevent Cancer Super Colon™ exhibit provides an educational walk-through replica of a human colon.

Among the free clinical services are mammography, diabetes checks, vision and hearing screenings, mental health services, HIV testing, blood pressure checks and more. Music and entertainment will be provided, along with monitored children’s activities.

The health festival is part of a recent grant awarded to the Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAMHSC) School of Rural Public Health and TAMHSC-College of Medicine/Texas A&M Physicians by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) – the largest-ever CPRIT prevention grant bestowed to a single entity. The goal is to screen and educate low-income patients at risk for colon cancer in the Brazos Valley while training family medicine residents in colorectal cancer screening procedures.

Participating organizations include the TAMHSC-School of Rural Public Health, TAMHSC-College of Medicine, Texas A&M Physicians, Brazos Valley Area Agency on Aging, American Cancer Society, Pink Alliance-Brazos Valley Breast Cancer Support, The Rose, Head Start, Carter BloodCare, Bryan Fire Department, 211-United Way, Brazos County Health Department, ElderAid, Texas Home Health Hospice, Project Unity, Blinn College Nursing, Mental Health Mental Retardation Authority of Brazos Valley, Quintiles and Brazos Valley Community Action Agency.

For more information on the festival, contact the TAMHSC-School of Rural Public Health at (979) 862-4993. For information on or to schedule a colonoscopy, contact Texas A&M Physicians at (979) 776-8440.