After New York Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson lost his fight against colorectal cancer earlier in 2016, city officials announced The Gift of Life campaign to increase CRC screening efforts, Spectrum News NY1 reports.
Here's what you should know.
1. Lu-Shawn Thompson, Mr. Thompson's wife, is helping publicize the campaign. The campaign is offering free colon cancer screenings at 18 city hospitals regardless of the patient's health insurance status.
2. Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Woodhull Medical Center is one of the hospitals participating in the campaign. CEO Gregory Calliste said the hospital is "doing everything that [it] can" to make the cancer screenings available to the community.
3. The City Council is declaring March 14, 2017, Ken Thompson Day in honor of his birthday and national colon cancer awareness month.