Ryan ReynoldsandRob McElhenneyare letting cameras get up close and personal, for a good cause.
In a new video from colon-cancer-awareness organizationLead from Behindin association with theColorectal Cancer Alliance, the two actors and soccer-club owners share their experience getting preventative colonoscopies.
At thestart of the video, Reynolds, 45, and McElhenney, 45, reveal they made a bet that if McElhenney learned to speak Welsh, theDeadpoolactor would let cameras follow along for the procedure.
“He was so sure he said he’d publicly broadcast his colonoscopy if I could do it,” McElhenney revealed in Welsh, via captions.
Reynolds then shared that as he and theIt’s Always Sunny in Philadelphiaactor and writer turned 45 this year, that meant it was time to get a colonoscopy.
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Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.Ryan Reynolds/YouTube
“It’s a simple step that could literally, and I mean literally, save your life,” Reynolds said.
The video then showed Reynolds arriving for his procedure and the doctor explaining that the “stunningly effective” test takes all of about 30 minutes.
“This was potentially life-saving for you — I’m not kidding, I’m not being overly dramatic,” the doctor told the actor. “This is exactly why you do this. You had no symptoms.”
The footage then went on to show images of the actual scan of the polyp. After the doctor explained how he removed it, he added, “You are interrupting the natural history of a disease of something of a process that could have ended up developing intocancerand causing all sorts of problems.”
Ryan Reynolds.Ryan Reynolds/YouTube
Despite the bet, the video also included footage from McElhenney’s turn — and he was sure to not pass up on the opportunity to compete with his friend.
“I figure I can’t go wrong in terms of comparing myself to Ryan,” joked theMythic Queststar. “They either find nothing and that means my colon was cleaner than his, or they find a polyp and it’s either bigger than his, which is awesome, or it’s smaller than his, which means I had less of an opportunity to have cancer — either way, I win.”
McElhenney glanced over at the camera as he learned the news in delight as he had “won.”
Rob McElhenney.Ryan Reynolds/YouTube
Lead from Behind was created in part alongside Maximum Effort, Reynolds' creative agency, according to apress release.
In the United States, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed, excluding skin cancers, according to theAmerican Cancer Society.
“I’m a trend, not a tragedy,” Bell said in the release.
She continued, “Polyps usually have no symptoms. A colonoscopy will find them, and snip them out on the spot, preventing cancer down the road! After I was diagnosed, my 35 year old sister got her first colonoscopy and they found and removed a large polyp. It may have saved her life.”
TheAmerican Cancer Societysaid the rate of colon or rectal cancer diagnoses each year has dropped in general since the mid-1980s, mainly due to the fact that more people are getting screened as well as “changing lifestyle-related risk factors.”
source: people.com
