Online voting begins Thursday as Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center and Cancer Services Program of St. Lawrence County have joined together to try to win the Colorectal Cancer Screening Saves Lives 2012 National Challenge.

St. Lawrence County’s colorectal cancer incidence is among the top three counties in New York State.

In an effort to increase screening rates through education and improved access to care, the goal is to win this challenge and hold a health fair centered on a visit from the Prevent Cancer Super Colon.

The Prevent Cancer Super Colon is an educational exhibit, an inflatable 20-foot-long, eight-foot-high replica of a human colon. It is an interactive teaching tool that is showing people all across America that colorectal cancer is preventable, treatable and beatable.

As visitors walk through the Prevent Cancer Super Colon, they get an up-close look at, healthy colon tissue, tissue with non-malignant colorectal disease like Crohn’s and colitis, colorectal polyps, and various stages of colorectal cancer.

To win this challenge, this effort needs votes for “Save St. Lawrence County, Send the Prevent Cancer Super Colon.”

To vote, go to screeningsaves.org; click “Join” to register and create a password; go back to the home page and click “Vote Now” and vote for “Save St. Lawrence County, Send the Prevent Cancer Super Colon”

Voting begins Thursday, April 12 and closes April 30.

Registering simply allows one to vote and provides information on colorectal cancer.