North Central London Cancer Alliance has launched a campaign to raise awareness of bowel cancer symptoms and to encourage more people in the eligible age range to do the bowel cancer screening test.
The campaign, called “Don’t wipe away the signs” aims to remove stigma around talking about changes in bowel habits as well as encouraging people to get screened.
Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK and is found anywhere in the large bowel, which includes the colon and rectum. During the campaign, North Central London Cancer Alliance is working in collaboration with local voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations and community pharmacies who will be raising awareness with members of the public. The campaign will also include advertising on digital sites, social media and radio, aiming to reach groups who usually have less engagement with NHS screening programmes.
Wesley Gilead, 45, from Islington, a former bowel cancer patient treated at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), said:
“I would say to anyone invited to do a test who is, perhaps, nervous, to just do it. I had absolutely no symptoms when the doctors found I had bowel cancer. So just because you feel well doesn’t mean you don’t need to do it. It’s better to know.”
The campaign coincides with the 20th anniversary of bowel cancer screening in the NHS. In North Central London screening is run from the Bowel Cancer Screening Centre at UCLH. It has issued some 1.5 million testing kits and detected over 900 bowel cancers across North Central London over the past 20 years.
The Don’t wipe away the signs campaign highlights both screening and symptoms:
- Bowel cancer screening helps detect small changes before symptoms appear. Early treatment can be more effective and outcomes are better.
- The test can be done at home. It is called a faecal immunochemical test (FIT). It checks for blood in your poo which you may not be able to see. This can be an early sign of bowel cancer or other conditions.
- The FIT kit is free and is sent in the post to people aged 50-74 who are registered with a GP in England, every two years.
- Bowel cancer can sometimes show symptoms such as change in bowel habits, blood in the poo or bleeding from the bottom, pain, bloating or a lump in the tummy, losing weight without trying or feeling more tired or breathless than usual.
- Anyone with these symptoms should to speak to their GP.
Zareena Cuddis, GP in North Central London, said: “If you notice any symptoms, or if something in your body doesn’t feel normal for you, please get yourself checked by your GP. We are here to support you.”
Maria Gonzalez, Partnerships and Engagement Manager at Healthwatch Islington, a campaign partner, said: “We look forward to delivering outreach sessions to help overcome barriers to bowel screening and to providing symptoms information that may not be accessed by our communities otherwise. This knowledge will impact many lives beyond the participants attending the sessions, as they share it widely with friends and family.”
Find out more about bowel cancer and the campaign: smallc.org.uk/dont-wipe-away-the-signs/