MHF is not an advice line

The MHF is not able to offer medical advice to individuals and does not have a helpline for this.

Our listing in the NHS's Bowel Cancer Screening: The Facts leaflet may have given the wrong impression. The best source of advice on this topic remains the bowel screening programme's free phone helpline: 0800 707 60 60. Or, Beating Bowel Cancer, the national charity providing support to bowel cancer patients and their relatives, have a nurse helpline that anybody concerned about bowel cancer can call: 08450 719 301.

Apologising to those who had called in error, MHF operations director Stephen Sibbald said: 'The Men’s Health Forum is an organisation working to improve men’s health through policy and campaigning. We are listed in the booklet because we are working together with the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme on a specific programme of work. But we are not medical professionals and I am sorry therefore that we are unable to offer any medical advice to you.'

There is information on bowel cancer and many other health issues on the MHF's malehealth website. Meanwhile the MHF is liaising the NHS to ensure the information on the Forum in their booklets is clear.