(WHTM)-- March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and state lawmakers want to help more people get screened.

They plan to introduce a bill lowering the age for insurance to cover screenings from 50 to 45 years old.

The bill's supporters include State Rep. Pat Gallagher, who was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer at age 45, and State Rep Tarik Khan, who is a family nurse practitioner who refers patients each week for screenings, including colonoscopies.

"If an x-ray finds a mass on your lung, they can't do anything," Khan said. "But if a colonoscopy finds a polyp, they can take out the polyp and do a biopsy, it's really a critical test."

"At 45 I was 5 years before I was even supposed to get checked and that is alarming and especially how far along I became," Gallagher said. "It is important that we move these ages down without barriers."

Stage 1 Colorectal Cancer has no symptoms, but is highly treatable when detected.