Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is sharing his cancer prevention journey with the world.
Portnoy, 47, had a colonoscopy on July 31 and documented the experience on social media for his fans.
The CEO announced in a video on X, formerly Twitter, on July 29 that he was preparing for the procedure in Boston, as part of what he jokingly called the “Dave is getting old checklist.”
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Before beginning his fasting and prep, Portnoy said he ate “seven f***in’ dinners from Giacomo’s.”
While he expressed that he was dreading the procedure, he emphasized the importance of men getting screened, saying, “You gotta do it.”
Colon cancer “is the second leading killer of men,” Portnoy said in the video. “It can be treated if you catch it early.”
(Updated statistics from the American Cancer Society show that colorectal cancer is the third-deadliest cancer for men, after lung cancer and prostate cancer.)
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Portnoy said he has partnered with the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Lead From Behind to help raise awareness of colorectal cancer.
“I’m a captain, that’s what captains do — they lead the ship,” he said.
On July 30, Portnoy jokingly posted, “I’m starving. May not make it.”
The next morning, at 5:48 a.m, he posted, “Rise and shine, it’s colonoscopy time!”
He then shared a video of himself upon arrival at the facility, joking that no one was available to check him in even though he’d been instructed to show up an hour early.
At 7:18 a.m., after he’d been checked in and changed into a gown, Portnoy shared a selfie with the caption, “Locked and loaded.”
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It appeared that the procedure went smoothly, as his next post was a short video taken afterward, showing him a bit loopy from the anesthetic.
Later that day, he posted photos of his post-colonoscopy “refill meal.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Portnoy and Lead From Behind for comment.
Portnoy has previously been open about his health issues.
In June, the social media personality revealed on his podcast, “The BFFs Pod,” that he had been diagnosed with skin cancer, which was surgically removed from his neck.
The condition was caused by “lying in the sun all day with no sunscreen,” Portnoy said.
“I went to a doctor, did a skin thing, they scrape it, and one of them came back cancerous; got to take it out,” he added.
Portnoy then said on X that the cancer “wasn’t the serious kind, thank god.”
Portnoy isn’t the first public figure to be open about having a colonoscopy.
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In 1997, journalist Katie Couric — then a host on the “Today” show — received her first colonoscopy on-air, in an effort to raise awareness and encourage others to get screened.
Shortly before her procedure, Couric lost her first husband to the disease.
In 2021, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force updated its guidelines to recommend that adults begin regular screenings for colorectal cancer at 45 years old.
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Lead From Behind — which states on its website that it’s “on a mission to make colon cancer famous” — launched in 2022 to help raise awareness of colon cancer prevention.
Actor Ryan Reynolds and football player Dak Prescott have also partnered with the organization to boost colon cancer awareness, according to the Lead From Behind website.
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