American Idol Finalist Casey Abrams Talks About The 'IBD Icons' Campaign

STUDIO CITY (CBS) — Fresh off the American Idol tour, Casey Abrams visits KCAL 9!

The sixth place American Idol finalist dropped by the KCAL 9 studios on Wednesday to talk to viewers about his medical condition, ulcerative colitis.

Casey is living with ulcerative colitis and is passionate about building awareness and getting folks involved in the campaign called IBD Icons. He will be launching a new phase of the program this week.

IBD Icons is a national disease awareness campaign to recognize people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who pursue dreams without giving in or giving up to their disease. IBD includes the chronic digestive diseases, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis (UC), which affect 1.4 million Americans combined. Casey became involved with IBD Icons because he didn't let his struggle with UC stop him from pursuing his passion for music and he wanted to share his story to inspire others. Through IBD Icons, Casey hopes to bring needed awareness to IBD.

This summer, hundreds of people living with IBD submitted their personal stories of achievement for a chance to be named an IBD Icon and to win a trip to see Casey Abrams perform at the Zappos.com Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon & ½ Marathon, to benefit the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA). Casey reviewed all the stories along with a panel of judges from the CCFA to select the top 10 Icons finalists