FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Hannah Vogler
(501)666-1990
(501)425-2626
hannahvogler@colondar.com



YOUNG COLORECTAL CANCER SURVIVORS
EDUCATE OTHERS IN UNCONVENTIONAL WAY:
PENNSYLVANIA WOMEN MODEL FOR 2005 COLONDAR


Erika Kratzer was just 22 and Maria Carosella only 36 when both young women were diagnosed with advanced colon cancer. At the time, neither one would have guessed that one day, they would go to extraordinary lengths to educate others about the disease that could have taken both of their lives.

Erika, now 26, is featured as Miss November and Maria, now 38, is featured as Miss July in the 2005 Colondar – a 12-month wall calendar of beautiful young female colorectal cancer survivors. Each month of the 2005 Colondar features a young woman along with a short biography chronicling her individual experience with colorectal cancer.

The 2005 Colondar is the newest project of The Colon Club, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating about colorectal cancer in out-of-the-box ways. Erika and Molly McMaster, co-founder of The Colon Club, met in Philadelphia last year while Molly was touring with another Colon Club project, the Colossal Colon. Somewhere in the middle of their conversation, the idea came up that it would be fun to make a calendar of young survivors showing their surgical scars.

“I thought the Colondar was an awesome idea, but I didn’t know if it would ever really happen,” said Erika. “Then Molly told me we were going to go for it, and I said I would do it. At first I was a little self-conscious about modeling in my bathing suit, but then I realized that I just had to get over it because we have to get the public’s attention about colorectal cancer.”

Molly then asked Erika if she could help find other young women who might want to model for the Colondar. Erika contacted her oncolo