Campaign to highlight bowel cancer

WITH over 900 people dying of bowel cancer in Ireland every year, and over half of patients presenting with the disease at a late stage, the Irish Cancer Society has nominated April as Ireland’s first Bowel Cancer Awareness Month.

The campaign, that gets under way this week, aims to both raise awareness of the cancer’s signs and symptoms as well as highlighting the benefit of a bowel cancer screening programme to detect the disease that is the second most common cause of cancer death in Ireland, after lung cancer.

At the heart of the campaign will be a National Cancer Helpline staffed by specialist nurses people can ring (1800 200 700), email ([e-mail]) or call into the Irish Cancer Society’s offices in Dublin to discuss their concerns.