Taye Diggs urges early Cancer screenings after double family loss

Taye Diggs Urgently appeals to early cancer diagnosis following the loss of his two parents. 

The American actor and singer, well known for his critically acclaimed character of bandleader in Chicago is turning personal loss into social advocacy.

The 55-year-old actor disclosed that his mother, Marcia Berry, and stepfather, Jeffries Diggs, both succumbed to cancer.

This notably influenced his campaign to promote early screenings of cancer, which is uncontrolled growth of spread of abnormal cells in the body.

His step father died of colon cancer in 2004 but his mother died in 2019 shortly after diagnosis. 

Further, Diggs told that both his parents unfortunately died rather prematurely due to a number of cancers. 

He added, “When something bad happens and you realize that it can be avoided… that annoys me.”

"She was feeling weird, but she's a trooper. It got so tough that we took her to the hospital, and then that's when they were like, 'Okay, she's got cancer. She doesn't have much [time].' And then boom, she was gone," he remarked.

The All American star is now collaborating with Cancerguard, a multi-cancer detection test which is based on blood and is developed by Exact Sciences.

Although the test is not used to substitute a regular screening, it can be used to create red flags that indicate the unusual protein markers to be further tested.

Diggs admitted that he had not even thought that there was anything like this. There is no reason why people should simply fail to go out and do the test.