Half of men don't know bowel cancer symptoms

Over half of men don't know the symptoms of the UK’s second biggest cancer killer, according to independent research commissioned by Beating Bowel Cancer.

When questioned, 52% of men and 29% of women claimed not to know any of the symptoms of bowel cancer and fewer than a third of people (32%) in Britain were able to name two or more symptoms.

Mark Flannagan, Chief Executive of Beating Bowel Cancer said, 'Bowel cancer claims a life every 30 minutes, so it’s very worrying that 4 in 10 people claim not to know any of the symptoms. During April alone, over 3,200 people in the UK will be diagnosed with bowel cancer and more than 1,350 will die from the disease, often because they were diagnosed too late.'

Further breakdown of the results showed that people in the South West and East of England had the best knowledge of the high risk symptoms.

National Clinical Director for Cancer, Professor Mike Richards said, 'We know the main reason our cancer survival rates lag behind other countries is because too many people are diagnosed late.

Be clear

'This is why our cancer outcomes strategy focuses on earlier diagnosis and why we recently launched the 'Be Clear on Cancer' campaign to raise symptom awareness of bowel cancer. Our message is clear: if for the last three weeks you have had blood in your poo or it has been looser, you need to tell your doctor.'

During April, Beating Bowel Cancer is introducing a host of new initiatives to raise awareness of bowel cancer symptoms and support those affected by bowel cancer, including the launch of a new website.