Better by the Mile: Mom takes on 5K to raise awareness about growing cancer risks [Video]

After being stopped in her tracks by a colorectal cancer diagnosis at just 35, a Concord mom wants to spread the word that this could happen to anyone. “I have no family history, no genetic markers,” Allison Annese said. “It definitely was shocking. It was shocking to me.”After experiencing some unusual gastrointestinal issues that wouldn’t go away, Annese started asking questions. “I was having some symptoms that weren’t normal for me and went in for a coloscopy and found out when I woke up I had cancer,” she said. At age 35, colorectal screening wouldn’t be on Annese’s radar. But her radiation oncologist at Mass General Hospital said research is changing how we think about this disease. “For a long time, colorectal cancer was really thought of as a disease of elderly patients,” Dr. Ted Hong said. “Over the past several years, we have seen a dramatic rise in colon …