A statewide group working to lower colorectal cancer deaths is getting help from a popular sports figure to increase screening and grassroots help to raise money for its work.

Help comes from Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott who is encouraging people to be screened and from a Mississippi vehicle license plate that will pump some money into the effort.

The 70x2020 Colorectal Cancer Awareness Initiative, based at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and formed in April 2014, unites efforts of multiple gastrointestinal physicians, health-related organizations, grassroots groups and individuals working to see 70 percent of eligible Mississippians screened for colorectal cancer by 2020 and ultimately fewer deaths from this disease.

With help from Prescott, whose mother died of colon cancer in 2013 while he played for Mississippi State University, the Initiative's 525 partners hope even more people will get screened.

If you hear Adam Dungey singing a little gospel music on the job in UMMC's bariatric program, he comes by it naturally.

“My grandfather had a gospel quartet all my life,” said Dungey, a Clinton resident and the Medical Center's administrator for weight management services. Dungey's uncle sings for The Blackwood Brothers, an award-winning, Memphis-based gospel group.

Four years ago, Dungey and three friends combined their voices and musical talents to form Brothers 4, a gospel quartet that plays on weekends at churches and other venues within 300-400 miles of the metro.

The Medical Center is proud to acknowledge those employees who will celebrate service anniversaries this week.

A physiology seminar presentation by UMMC's Transgenic Core director highlights a light presentation schedule this week, but visiting lectures and a Health Disparities Journal Club meeting will help pick up the event slate later this month.