About Colorectal Cancer Screening Initiative Foundation (CCSIF)

CCSIF mandate is to raise awareness about the prevalence and preventability of colon cancer and to promote screening for the disease.

CCSIF was founded by Mariellen Black in April 2000, less than a year after she was diagnosed and treated for colon cancer.

CCSIF has been the driving force behind a print campaign that ran in newspapers and magazines across Canada, two awareness campaigns for radio and two TV public service announcements.

Mariellen Black - Founder

CCSIF's Medical Advisory Board Members

CCSIF's Board of Directors

Tony Fields, M.D.

Alberta Cancer Board

Steven Gallinger, M.D.

Mount Sinai Hospital

Jane Green, Ph.D.

Memorial University

Robert Mustard, M.D.

St. Michael's Hospital, Chair

Margaret Somerville, A.M., F.R.S.C.

McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics & Law

Judith Trudel, M.D.

Department of Surgery, University of Minnesota

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The members of the Board have committed to complete the objectives Mariellen Black set and to pursue her long-term goal of population-based screening programs supported by the various governments in Canada.

Darryl Sittler

Honorary Chair

Christie Black

Chair

Laurence Gutcher

Treasurer

Brenda Brown

Virginia Flintoft

Heather Gardiner

Jay Gordon

Colin MacDonald

Josee Turcotte

Honorary Directors

Alannah Campbell
Deborah Cotton
Jack MacDonald
Marci Pearlman
Marion Plunkett
Gerry Sadvari
Fransi Weinstein

Our Founder Mariellen Black CCSIF was created by Mariellen Black in April 2000 less than a year after she was diagnosed with metastasized colon cancer.

Mariellen considered herself an educated health care consumer and routinely complied with any testing recommendations, so she was shocked to learn that a colonoscopy at age 50 could have prevented her diagnosis of advanced CRC four years later. Naturally, she told everyone about CRC screening.

She had no advance warnings. She had seemed in excellent health. One night she experienced crippling abdominal pain. She thought she might have kidney stones. She was devastated to get the diagnosis of advanced colon cancer. She was furious it could have been detected in its earliest stages if she had a colonoscopy at age 50.

After her surgery, she came up with the idea of the Foundation and began the process of finding an advertising agency to help get this message to other health consumers. At a Christmas party after her first round of chemotherapy she handed out CRC "Prevention Kits" to all her guests. They were filled with daily dose ASA, folic acid and comfort tips during preparation for the colonoscopy.

She insisted her family and close friends all have colonoscopiesThose who had polyps removed during the procedure were particularly relieved, but all were grateful to her for encouraging them to get tested. She literally saved some friends' lives.

And that was just the beginning. She commissioned Plunkett Communications Inc. to conduct focus groups with male and female CRC survivors and the general public to determine their attitudes in order to shape the creative brief submitted to the original volunteer advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, and later, Taxi Advertising.

Mariellen's efforts were combined with the help of Cotton/Smyth Inc. public relations; former Toronto Maple Leaf star Darryl Sittler and his wife Wendy (now deceased due to a recurrence of CRC); Paul Stewart, The Riverport Community Choir of Nova Scotia, Gerry Bascombe, Tony Reynolds, MCS Recording Studios and David Hillier. She held a media launch for CCSIF in September 2000 to celebrate a cheeky awareness campaign prepared by Ogilvy & Mather.

Tragically, the message Mariellen worked so hard to put out on the airwaves and newspaper pages was one she learned too late. She died on January 9, 2002 from complications associated with CRC, but she would want you to know that colon cancer is up to 95 per cent preventable with timely and thorough testing.

She would tell you "Don't die of embarrassment."

Her cheerful, cheeky and insistent attitude guide us still.

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