Can y’all believe it has been four years since Chadwick Boseman passed away?

It’s unreal how fast that time has gone. Yet, for Chadwick Boseman’s wife Simone Ledward Boseman it’s probably like yesterday.

All the more reason she’s rallying for more research, funding and treatment options for colorectal cancer prevention.

To usher in National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, Boseman joined advocates on the National Mall in DC–lined with over 27,400 blue flags to represent the number of people that will be diagnosed with the disease– on Monday to urge people to test for colon cancer.

“I’m sorry that cancer was a part of your story, I’m sorry that it’s a part of mine,” Ledward Boseman told a crowd of dozens.

Chadwick Boseman died of colorectal cancer in August 2020. He was only 43.

“It makes me so angry that a disease so treatable took him [Chadwick] away from me when all we needed to start out with was knowledge,” Ledward Boseman said. “It makes me angry that colorectal cancer diagnoses have been rising so dramatically in young people, and young black people in particular, for 15 years before he was diagnosed and we still knew nothing about it.”

According to American Cancer Society (ACS), colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of death for men and women combined.

ACS also reports that Black people are 20 percent more likely to get colorectal cancer and 40 percent more likely to die from this type of cancer, compared to other groups.

If you haven’t already, be sure to get tested.