"Nothing really matters except your family and friends."

--Jay Monahan, 1998

Jay Monahan was a criminal defense attorney, television legal commentator, and civil war enthusiast. More importantly, he was a father, a husband, a brother, a son, a friend. An active and health-conscious man in the prime of his life, Jay was diagnosed unexpectedly with advanced colon cancer at the young age of 41. After Jay's diagnosis, he and his wife Katie Couric were traumatized not only by his illness, but also by the exhausting process of identifying treatment options and going from place to place for tests and appointments. After Jay's death, Katie joined forces with Jay's gastroenterologist, Dr. Mark Pochapin, to find a better way for other patients-and for those for whom this devastating disease might be prevented. It was in large part through Katie's commitment and vision-and the support of the Entertainment Industry Foundation's National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance — that The Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health was born.