“Broke”: Colon Cancer and the Test That Could Have Changed Everything
Published: 09-26-2025 | 4 MIN READ | Author: Andie Carver
My mom has stage-four colon cancer.
It took me a while to be able to say that, or write that down, confidently. Even now, I sometimes wonder if this is all just a big misunderstanding. Cancer is a sad truth, but I thought it was a sad truth for other people. Maybe we all think that when it comes to tragedy: How is this one mine?
It took two hospital visits before she got the diagnosis, and by then, it was too late. If she had known sooner, she could have weighed and considered her treatment options. There would have been options.
Poverty has been a lifelong bully to her, so preventive care seemed like a frivolous expense. A luxury. If she had had access to affordable healthcare and free testing, she could have learned the truth with time to spare.
If, years ago, she had known about community healthcare organizations like Prism Health North Texas (PHNTX), who don’t turn patients away, maybe things would have turned out differently.
A Lifetime of Less
In her own words, my mom has been “broke” her entire life. She experienced periods of homelessness, living in her car. More often, she shared unstable housing with roommates, her “safe space” constantly under threat due to unpaid bills.
Most of her employers did not offer health insurance, and they didn’t pay her enough to afford it on her own.
Type 2 diabetes, obesity, COPD—she learned to ignore her growing list of health issues, the consistent pain in her body, until it screamed. When I was growing up, we’d both wait until the pain in our bodies became unbearable, and then we’d visit the emergency room. When asked about the bill, Mom would repeat her mantra: “I don’t have it. I’m broke.”
This pattern of delaying her care, of living a life that required her to delay care, led to more severe health issues.
Learning the Truth Too Late
In June 2024, Mom was hospitalized with a perforated colon. The hospital staff, understanding that she could not afford the extensive medical bills, worked hard to avoid a costly surgery. Sadly, if her medical team had performed the surgery then, they would have discovered the source of the blockage in her colon that led to the perforation.
In my interview at PHNTX in July 2024, before I became the Content Manager, one of my interviewers asked me about the connection between poverty and access to healthcare. I shared about my mom’s hospitalization. I thought then that the danger was behind us. It was a close call, but we made it out unscathed. Mom was feeling better.
We wouldn’t learn the hard truth until January 2025 when she was hospitalized again, this time requiring emergency surgery.
We fidgeted for eight hours in the waiting room. The surgery wasn’t supposed to take that long, and no one could give us a real update. Finally, around 11 at night, her surgeon came out and told our family and her church family that she had cancer. Stage four. They had removed the cancer from her colon, but it had spread to other areas of her body by then. She could try chemo, but it would only extend her life. It wouldn’t take the cancer away.
Free Colon Cancer Screening
What if, years ago, my mom had known she had options? That, for free, she could know what was happening inside her body in enough time to stop the spread of her cancer, before it reached her stomach, her lungs, her spine? Maybe that could have changed everything.
PHNTX offers affordable medical care on a sliding fee scale. Those who qualify are also eligible for free cancer screening kits, prescribed by a PHNTX medical provider. There are two options: A FIT (Fecal Immunochemical Test) and a Cologuard test. Both colorectal cancer screening tests can be performed in the privacy of your own home, and PHNTX offers them for free to patients who qualify.
How to Get Free Colon Cancer Screening Tests
Provider Prescription
If you’re already a PHNTX patient, you can ask your provider to prescribe you a test, and it will be mailed to your home.
If you’re not a patient yet, just call us at 214-521-5191 or request an appointment online. After your first visit, your new provider can prescribe you an at-home test.
A PHNTX financial coordinator will let you know if your income qualifies you for free testing. If not, your insurance will be billed. (Don’t worry: If you don’t have insurance, it’s likely that you’ll qualify for a free test.)
Attend Our Awareness Event
On October 14 from 5 to 7 p.m. at our Empowerment Center, PHNTX is partnering with American Cancer Society to host a colorectal screening awareness event. We’ll have providers on site who can prescribe the kits, and you could even take a FIT test home on the same day, while supplies last.
Preventive care means celebrating life, and the event will feel like a celebration. We’ll have free food, raffle prizes, and fun swag, like poop-shaped stress balls. RSVP here to ensure there’s enough to go around.
Share This Story, Spread Hope
What if my mom had believed going to the doctor was a real, affordable option for her? What if society had taught her that hers was a body worth nurturing and protecting?
So much is outside of our control. But community healthcare organizations like PHNTX make seeking early medical intervention affordable and, therefore, a reality to patients living in poverty. If we share this information with people who need care, we could change their lives, and the lives of their families, for the better.
Share this story to spread hope. Help me make sure people like my mom can learn early if something isn’t right, with enough time to get the care that they need.
Author’s Note: To protect my mom’s privacy, I have not included her name or identifying characteristics, and I have used a stock photo as the feature image.
