Chadwick Boseman won a posthumous NAACP Image Award last night and his wife delivered an emotional speech. After the announcement of his victory last night for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Simone Ledward Boseman advocated for people in the Black community to get screening for colon cancer. The Black Panther star tragically passed away from that disease last year. Amid this awards season push that could see him net an Oscar for his performance, she is using her platform to push people to look out for warning signs and try to get screened early. Baseman has had to give a number of these speeches since her husband’s passing. She handles all of them with grace that seems hard to put into words. Check out what her speech said down below:
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“As always, he would give all honor and glory to the most high God,” she tearfully began. “He would thank his mom and dad, and he would give honor to the ancestors as we now honor him. Thank you NAACP Image Awards for always giving him his flowers. He was an uncommon artist and an even more uncommon person. But the manner in which we lost him is not uncommon at all. Not in our community.”
“Black people in this country are 20 percent more likely to be diagnosed with colon cancer and 40 percent more likely to die from it. The age for routine screening has recently been lowered to 45 so if you are 45 years of age or older, please get screened. Don’t put it off any longer, please get screened,” she said,
“This disease is beatable if you catch it in its early stages so you don’t have any time to waste even if you have no family history and even if you think nothing is wrong. And if you are younger than 45, please be proactive about your health. Know the signs, know the science, listen to your body. If you need more information and for a full list of colon cancer symptoms you can visit standuptocancer.org/coloncancersymptoms,” she continued. “Please, you are so needed and you are so loved. Please take your health into your own hands. Thank you.”
Did you catch the awards last night? Let us know in the comments!
