A TikTok star who was diagnosed with colon cancer when he was 33-years- old is opening up about his diagnosis, in hopes of using his situation to “give awareness for young men like myself.”
Randy Gonzalez, the father who runs the popular Enkyboys account on the platform, posted an emotional 5-minute clip to TikTok and Instagram this past week, revealing the news of his stage-four diagnosis to his fans.
“I kept it to myself, and I felt like it was selfish, because I didn’t want to tell everybody my business because it was personal,” he said. “But I feel like I can use my situation to give awareness for young men like myself.”
Gonzalez said doctors “never said anything about colon cancer until I got my colonoscopy,” and he encouraged fans to take all the proper steps to check on themselves, since he has no family history of cancer or colon cancer despite struggling with abdominal pain for a few years.
“The doctor said I had two, three years to live, and he said with chemo, I have five years to live,” Gonzalez said. “And you know, I didn’t know how to take it. It was devastating.”
Dr. Omar Madriz, a colon and rectal surgeon at University of Texas Physicians and Memorial Hermann, said via ABC 7 that “the most important take in younger patients is that anybody can get colon, rectal cancer.”
“The higher the age, the higher the risk, but just because you’re young, does not mean you can not get colon or rectal cancer.”
Gonzalez—who has an impressive 15 million followers on TikTok, thanks to his popular clips with his young son— launched a GoFundMe page last week, in an effort to help pay for his treatment and bring awareness to colon cancer. In just a week, he’s earned over $180,000 out of his $1 million goal, and has earned 4,800 total donations from fans. According to a study by the American Cancer Society, young people born after 1990 are seeing double the risk of a colon cancer diagnosis, when compared to those born in the ‘50s, per ABC 7.
“Don’t ignore your symptoms,” Madriz said. “Change in bowel habits, abdominal pain, blood in the stools, should not be ignored.”
