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Leading Cancer Research Charity Calls for more Volunteers from the North East to Help Raise Awareness

ByEmily

Sep 14, 2016

Have you been affected by bowel cancer, either personally or through someone you know? If you have and would like to raise awareness of the disease, the UK’s second biggest cancer killer, here’s your chance to do something about it.

The UK’s leading bowel cancer research charity, Bowel Cancer UK, is looking for more people from the North East to champion early diagnosis of bowel cancer by joining their award-winning health promotion volunteer team, and giving talks in the local area.  The talks, which are held in workplaces, community groups or anywhere an existing group comes together, provide an ideal way to raise awareness of the disease and encourage good bowel health.

There are 16,200 people who die from bowel cancer in the UK every year – that’s more than 44 people every day. However bowel cancer is treatable and curable especially if diagnosed early. Nearly everyone diagnosed at the earliest stage will survive bowel cancer but this drops significantly as the disease develops.

Gail Curry, Head of Health Promotion and Training at the charity said, “A key part of our work is educating patients, the public and healthcare professionals about bowel cancer, in particular the importance of early diagnosis, it really does save lives. One of the ways we do this is through our health promotion volunteer programme which was recognised last year with a prestigious award from the Royal Society of Public Health. Our volunteers have all been affected by bowel cancer in some way. They use their own experiences to raise awareness of signs and symptoms, risk factors and the national bowel screening programme. A full day’s training is given with plenty of time and we support volunteers every step of the way.”

The charity has training dates for new volunteers in the next couple of months. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer visit bowelcanceruk.org.uk, email volunteer@bowelcanceruk.org.uk or call 020 7940 1760.

By Emily