April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness of the 4th most common cancer in the UK.
Bowel Cancer is cancer that starts in the large bowel and can also be called colorectal cancer. The bowel is part of the digestive system, and the large bowel is made up of the colon and rectum.
If diagnosed early bowel cancer is treatable.
What are the symptoms?
- Bleeding from your bottom
- Blood in your poo
- A change in bowel habits including opening your bowels more or less often or having diarrhoea or constipation that might come and go
- Losing weight
- Feeling very tired
- A pain or lump in your tummy
Having these symptoms does not mean you have bowel cancer, but it is important to find our what is causing them.
Diagnosis
In England people between the ages of 50 and 74 will be invited to take part in bowel cancer screening every two years.
The bowel cancer screening programme uses a test called a faecal immunochemical test (FIT). You collect a small amount of poo, and it is sent to a lab who check for blood in your poo. If the result is positive, you will be invited for further investigations.
However, it is important to note that bowel cancer can affect people of all ages so if you have any symptoms to contact your GP and ask for an at home test.
What treatment is available for bowel cancer?
Bowel cancer is treatable if diagnosed in the early stages, so it is important to be aware of the symptoms.
Treatment includes surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy.
Awareness
Help and support is available from Bowel Cancer UK.
Bowel Cancer UK have two fantastic ongoing campaigns:
#GetOnARoll to put bowel cancer symptoms on supermarkets own brand toilet roll where people see them most to educate the wider community on the symptoms as nearly four in ten people cannot name a single symptom of bowel cancer.
The Never Too Young campaign was also launched in 2013 to lead the change for younger bowel cancer patients as bowel cancer can affect young people too.
2026
This April Bowel Cancer UK are asking those affected by bowel cancer to share their story to their ‘story wall.’
The aim is to raise awareness, provide support to those affected by bowel cancer and motivate others to support the cause.
They are also running Active April 2026 asking people to get active in 2026 (for example running, walking, cycling, horse-riding or swimming) to raise vital sponsorship funds for Bowel Cancer UK.
Kirsty Dakin is a specialist medical negligence solicitor and says Bowel cancer is treatable if diagnosed early. It is therefore so important to raise awareness of the symptoms so that more lives are saved through early diagnosis.’
You can watch Kirsty’s video raising awareness of bowel cancer here
