Attorney Clarence Dass is a cancer survivor committed to raising awareness about colon cancer.
By Brian Cox
Legal News
An estimated 150,000 Americans will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer this year, according to the American Cancer Society – some 4,700 in Michigan alone.
But attorney Clarence Dass knows that stark statistics rarely serve to convey the reality of any disease because statistics can seem general and impersonal, which is why Dass is determined to put a name and a face to the numbers.
Specifically, his name and his face.
Five years after battling and surviving colon cancer, Dass has taken on the responsibility of raising awareness about the disease.
“It’s become my second job that I never applied for,” says Dass.
Dass received his life-altering diagnosis in 2017 at the age of 31, just after he met the woman he would eventually marry and as he was launching his private practice. In the months leading up to the diagnosis, Dass had suffered from stomach pain that sometimes lasted for days. He noticed a loss in appetite and unexplained fatigue. He began losing weight. It was when he was stricken with a high-grade fever that he was convinced something was wrong. His father, who is a doctor, put him in touch with a gastroenterologist. A colonoscopy found two tumors of significant size. He had stage 4 colon cancer.
Dass began 12 rounds of chemotherapy across the next 6 months. The regimen took a massive toll on his body, but he never stopped working, at times running his law firm from a hospital bed. Following the chemotherapy, he underwent radiation every day for five weeks. Later, surgery removed the last of the tumors. At last, he was cancer free.
Dass now feels an obligation to get out the word about colorectal cancer, speaking at Survivor Day events and conferences, participating in support groups, and writing essays about his experience. He also serves on the advisory board to Gilda’s Club of Metro Detroit, which provides a social and emotional support program for people living with cancer in a nonresidential setting.
Dass, who was recognized by the State Bar of Michigan with the “Unsung Hero Award” in 2019, is particularly interested in reaching out to fellow attorneys to urge them to look after their health.
“Lawyers often leave their health to be the last thing they take care of,” says Dass. “We struggle sometimes because our job is taking care of our clients’ problems and we can sometimes minimize our own problems or even ignore them.”
The rate of people being diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer each year has dropped overall since the mid-1980s, mainly because more men and women are getting screened and changing their lifestyle-related risk factors, according to the American Cancer Society. But this downward trend is mostly in older adults and masks rising incidence among younger adults.
Dass himself was only 31 and he points to “Black Panther” actor Chadwick Boseman, who died from colon cancer at the age of 43, and local sports radio personality Jamie Samuelson, who succumbed to the disease at 48.
Dass knows colon cancer can be an uncomfortable subject to talk about, but he is passionate about breaking down any stigma surrounding the disease.
“No one likes talking about cancer,” he says. “But the more we talk about cancer, the more people will talk about it.”
In a commentary he wrote for Deadline Detroit to mark March as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, Dass said: “Talking about colorectal cancer, spreading awareness, and sharing stories of survival can literally save someone’s life this month and every month.”
In addition to raising awareness of the disease, Dass would like to work more with legislators to advocate for free genetic testing, which would let people know if they were predisposed to any number of diseases, and he is fighting to eliminate pre-existing conditions as a factor in securing health insurance.
In the end, Dass hopes to encourage other attorneys to pay close attention to their health despite the demands of the job.
“If your body is telling you something that is unusual, go get it checked out,” he says. “Go get screened.”
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