NAACP Image Awards: Chadwick Boseman’s Wife Pleads With Black People To Screen For Colon Cancer In Emotional Speech
Chadwick Boseman posthumously won an NAACP Image Award in the Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture category for his performance in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
The late actor’s wife Taylor Simone Ledward gave an emotional acceptance speech, as tears rolled down her face.
“Thank you, NAACP Image Awards for always giving him his flowers,” she said.
Ledward continued, “He was an uncommon artist and even more uncommon person, but the manner in which we’ve lost him is not uncommon at all.”
She noted that Black Americans are 20% more likely to be diagnosed with colon cancer and 40% more likely died from it.
RELATED: Chadwick Boseman Dead At 43: 'Black Panther' And Jackie Robinson Actor Battled Colon Cancer
Boseman died at 43 on August 28, 2020 following a four-year battle with colon cancer, a diagnosis he hadn’t shared publicly. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was his final film role, though he will best be remembered as the Black Panther in the Marvel universe.
“The age for routine screening has recently been moved over to 45,” she explained. “So if you were 45 years of age or older, please get screened. Don’t put it off any longer, please. This disease is beatable.”
