SPH Honors Couric’s Impact

“Today” show co-host Katie Couric received the School of Public Health’s highest honor yesterday for her efforts to increase national colon cancer awareness.

Couric described her quest to turn the personal tragedy of her husband’s cancer into a national crusade to fight the disease at a reception held at the Charles Hotel yesterday afternoon.

She also thanked the School of Public Health (SPH) for recognizing her accomplishments on and off camera.

“The media places more emphasis on what’s on my head than what’s in it, what shoes I’m in rather than the journey I’ve taken,” she said.

Presenting the Julius Richmond Award, SPH Dean Barry R. Bloom commended Couric for utilizing the media in her efforts to call national attention to public health concerns.

In 1997, Couric’s husband, Jay Monahan, was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 41. Nine months later, he died from the disease, which is treatable if caught in the early stages.

Couric said that “love and desperation” caused her to become an expert on colon cancer during those painful months. And she emphasized that she felt it was her duty to share her new knowledge with as many people as possible in order to save others from the tragedy she and her family faced.

Couric launched an extensive media campaign to increase public awareness about the signs and symptoms of colon cancer, as well as the colonoscopy screening process. She went so far as to personally undergo a colonoscopy exam on national television in an attempt to “demystify” the process and encourage viewers to get screened.

As a result of her efforts, researchers at the University of Michigan School of Medicine discovered a 20 percent nationwide increase in the number of colonoscopy exams, which they attribute to “the Couric Effect.”

In addition to her media crusade, Couric also founded the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance that has raised over $15 million for colon cancer research efforts.

Couric was emotional as she described her struggle to the audience.

But she also added some humor to her brief remarks.

After her own colonoscopy appeared on national television, several viewers sent her copies of images from their own exams, she said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

And Couric even alluded to the movie Legally Blonde.

“I guess I’m the Elle Woods of the room, but it’s good to be at the UVa of the North,” she said.