Dan Dixon talked the attendees through a series of slides about early detection of cancers through bodily awareness, communications with your doctor and such tests as mammograms, blood tests, colonoscopy and prostate screenings.  He was assisted by Shalanda Caradine, Yendel Jones and Carline Massey.

Concerning colonoscopies, Dixon had news about the age it is recommended to begin having this screening regularly.  

"The sign over there says, if you're 45 or older, you need to get screened for colon cancer. And it used to be 50. It's been 50 forever.  Then we started looking at the data. We were finding younger people are getting colon cancer, and enough of these people were getting it all across the world that that number got dropped from 50 to 45," he said.

As it turns out, the use of UAMS' online portal to arrange home cancer screening tests, including mammograms, stool tests and the like can mean follow-up tests are covered for free by the organization.  "If you get it from our Navigator or from our UAMS program, one of these take-home kits, and there is a positive finding on it, we do have state funding that will pay for the next step of the diagnostic process," one staffer said.  

Many brochures and even take-home colon-cancer tests were made available at a table at the event.  

At the table on the other side of the room was served coffee, various fruit juices, croissants, bagles and danishes as well as a fruit plate.