The national bowel campaign “Be clear on cancer” was launched across England this week with the aim being to awareness of cancer symptoms of various cancers and encourage people with symptoms to present earlier at their GP. If cancer is caught early, it is easier to treat and the outlook is a lot better for the patient.
Awareness and early diagnosis is the key.
Thousands of people every year beat cancer, but if more people saw their doctors with the early signs and symptoms, thousands more lives could be saved every year. Specifically we will be focusing on breast cancer in ladies aged 70 plus and bowel cancer in the over 55’s.
Be clear on cancer” National Bowel Cancer Campaign targeting people aged 55 plus.
Approximately 16,000 people a year die from bowel cancer, making it second only to lung cancer as a cause of death in the UK. Part of the reason for the high mortality rate is that symptoms often don’t appear until the cancer is advanced and harder to treat. Across Cumbria bowel cancer accounted for 210 deaths in 2010. Be clear on cancer aims to encourage people who have had “looser poo” or “blood in their poo” for more than 3 weeks to see their GP. The campaign sees the GP as the advocate endorsing people to come and see him/her.
For those without bowel cancer symptoms, the National Bowel Cancer screening programme aims to detect early cancers and pre-cancerous polyps to reduce the number of people diagnosed with bowel cancer especially the later stages of bowel cancer, meaning more patients can be cured. Several million people aged 60 and over have now been screened, with approximately half of those invited taking part. For more information on the National Bowel screening programme please call 0800 707 6060.
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