Bowel Cancer Awareness Month 2022 – raising awareness of one of the most treatable forms of cancer

Posted: 21/04/2022

April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, an annual campaign involving various charitable organisations, including Beating Bowel Cancer and Bowel Cancer UK. The aim of the campaign is to increase awareness of bowel cancer and raise funds towards treating this condition – look out for #thisisbowelcancer.

Every 15 minutes somebody is diagnosed with bowel cancer in the UK - that's nearly 43,000 people each year. Around 268,000 people living in the UK today have been diagnosed with bowel cancer, reports Bowel Cancer UK.

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK and the second biggest cancer killer, with more than 16,500 people dying from it every year. However, it is also one of the most treatable and curable cancers, especially when diagnosed at an early stage. Guts UK highlights that when caught early, the chance of curing the condition is greater than 90%. Early diagnosis of bowel cancer, and any other type of cancer, saves lives. This is the reason why April has been set aside to educate the public and raise awareness of bowel cancer symptoms.

The NHS website explains that more than 90% of people with bowel cancer have one of the following combinations of symptoms:

• A persistent change in bowel habit – pooing more often, with looser, runnier poos and sometimes tummy (abdominal) pain.
• Blood in the poo without other symptoms of piles (haemorrhoids) – this makes it unlikely the cause is haemorrhoids.
• Abdominal pain, discomfort or bloating always brought on by eating – sometimes resulting in a reduction in the amount of food eaten and weight loss.

See the NHS website for further details of bowel cancer symptoms.

As with most cancers, the key to greater survival prospects is normally early detection, so improving public awareness of the main symptoms to look out for couldn’t be more important. A key factor contributing to delayed diagnosis of cancer is often a lack of awareness amongst the public about the signs and symptoms to be worried about, and the need to see their GPs promptly when symptoms persist. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has resulted in some reluctance by the public to seek medical help for worrisome symptoms and/or a lack of available GP appointments, has only exacerbated the issue.

Lucie Prothero, senior associate in the clinical negligence team at Penningtons Manches Cooper, who acts for many clients with bowel cancer, said: “We wholeheartedly support Bowel Cancer Awareness Month’s campaign to increase awareness of bowel cancer and raise funds for top-level research to fight the disease.

“We receive many enquiries from people with bowel cancer, or their families, who are concerned that the opportunity for an earlier diagnosis was missed. Often in circumstances where there is a claim for negligence, the patient has not been properly investigated for suspicious symptoms, or the results of investigations haven’t been properly reported or followed-up. However, it is also true that in many cases, if the patients had been more alert to changes in their own bodies and their bowel habits, then their cancer could have been picked up sooner, which would have given them a greater chance of successful treatment.”

For more information and support contact Bowel Cancer UK and Beating Bowel Cancer, and follow the campaign using #thisisbowelcancer.

For more information on delayed diagnosis of cancer claims click here. 

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