April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month.
This national campaign, led by Bowel Cancer UK, aims to raise awareness of the symptoms of bowel cancer, and highlight ways in which people can reduce their risk of developing the condition.
Assembly Member for Mid and West Wales JOYCE WATSON AM is supporting the awareness campaign.
Mrs Watson said: “If asked, most people would not know what the second most common cause of cancer death is bowel cancer - a disease that in the UK affects some 36,500 and kills around 16,000 people every year.
“However, research shows that most people would rather ignore their bowel cancer symptoms than seek medical help. Perhaps that is because of embarrassment, or fear of diagnostic tests. The tragedy is that the number of deaths from bowel cancer could easily be reduced - if caught in its early stages it is highly treatable, with survival rates of up to 90%.
“Still, every half an hour, someone in the UK will die from bowel cancer, and that figure could so easily be reduced if people acted on their symptoms earlier and were better informed about prevention and familial risk.
”This is why the awareness campaign is so important and why the campaign is encouraging everyone to break the silence about bowel cancer.”
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