A giant, walk-through colon will provide interest and entertainment for attendees at Powell’s Health and Safety fair on Saturday, March 28.

But, more importantly, Janet Porn, a registered nurse with Powell Valley Clinic, and representatives of Wyoming Cancer Resource Services hope it will help save some of those people’s lives.

“You’ve never seen a bunch of women so excited about a colon,” she joked while talking about the traveling exhibit, which will be in northwest Wyoming for the first time.

The 12-foot inflatable colon, provided by the Wyoming Health Department, illustrates what the inside of a healthy colon looks like. As you walk through, it shows an example of a polyp, or precancerous growth, on the colon, and then illustrates what cancer of the colon and other colon maladies, such as Crohn’s disease, look like.

Porn said March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, so she is particularly pleased about the timing of the health fair and the visual opportunity for attendees to learn about colon health.

“We’ve never had this before at the health fair, and we’re really excited about having it. ... We wanted the public to know about it before it gets here.”

The goal, she said, is to create an awareness of colorectal cancer and the need, especially for older people, to have regular colonoscopies to screen for colon cancer.

That’s also true for people with a family history of colon cancer, who should be screened earlier, she said.

“They have multiple things that show you all the different types of things that can basically grow and happen in your colon,” said Collette Behrent, program manager for Cancer Resource Services in Cody.

“One of our jobs is promoting the free colorectal cancer screening program,” said Val Walsh-Haines, program manager for Wyoming Cancer Resource Services, also in Cody.

All three women will be wearing blue in recognition of Wyoming Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, she said.

“Just like October is all about pink” in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, March’s color is blue, she said.

“There’s very few states that provide free colonoscopies — almost none,” Walsh-Haines said. “And we had the Wyoming Legislature set aside tobacco settlement funds seven years ago, so we have the means. Because, for a lot of folks — even folks with insurance — they can’t afford it, because the deductible is too high, or they don’t have insurance. It’s really great to keep reminding our citizens that that’s available. Who knows how long it will last, but right now we’re still promoting it. It’s the gold standard of colon cancer treatment.”

People who are 50 years old and older should get a colonoscopy. People who have a family history or who are having symptoms should as well, she said.

To qualify for a free colonoscopy, a person’s household income must be 250 percent or less of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that is $60,000, “so this is a pretty substantial program, (and) we are trying to reach a lot of those folks that are falling through that (economic) crack.”

To find out if you qualify for a free colonoscopy, call Wyoming Cancer Resource Services at 877-437-2702.