TAKE STEPS FOR CROHN’S & COLITIS

Raises Awareness and Funds for Chronic Digestive Diseases

WHO: Take Steps for Crohn’s & Colitis is the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America’s largest annual event dedicated to finding cures for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Our Take Steps walks take place in more than 120 communities nation-wide and offer a wonderful day for family, friends and the community to celebrate the dedication and hard work by the IBD community in raising funds towards our mission. In 2015, more than 40,000 people walked for cures while raising more than $10 million toward mission-critical research and patient support programs.

WHAT: Birmingham Take Steps for Crohn’s and Colitis

WHEN: Saturday, April 30, 2016; 5:00 PM festival begins, 6:00 PM ceremonies begin

WHERE: Homewood Central Park, 1632 Oxmoor Rd, Homewood, AL 35209

WHY: Known collectively as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis affects 1.6 million American adults and children.  They are painful, medically incurable diseases that attack the digestive system. Crohn’s disease may attack anywhere along the digestive tract, while ulcerative colitis inflames only the large intestine (colon). Symptoms may include abdominal pain, persistent diarrhea, rectal bleeding, fever, weight loss and fatigue. Many patients require numerous hospitalizations and surgery. These are common disorders with bad consequences if not detected and treated early, yet long delays in diagnosis and effective treatment are common because people, including primary care physicians, are not familiar with the symptoms. The average delay in diagnosis is 1-3 years and the average patient is misdiagnosed twice. Most people develop the diseases between 15 and 35, however children under the age of 18 is one of the fastest growing patient populations.