More than a third of UK adults unable to identify bowel cancer symptoms, research finds | UK News

According to new research, more than a third of British adults cannot identify symptoms of intestinal cancer.

In a YouGov recording that was made before the awareness month in April, 35% of people do not know what the symptoms were.

Just more than a fifth (22%) of people mentioned changes to bowel habits, while only 12%of people recognized bleeding from below, and less than half (47%) of those asked, called blood in Poo as a symptom.

Intestinal cancer is the UK’s second deadest form of cancer, to lung. According to Cancer Research UK, 16,800 lives per year.

Bonnie Brimstone was in her mid-eighties when she was diagnosed with intestinal cancer.

“It was a big shock, but I knew something wasn’t quite right,” she told Sky News.

“I started to the toilet more often was looser than normal. I knew it wasn’t normal for me. I lost some weight – half a stone – fairly fast. And finally I saw blood in the toilet. That’s when I knew there was something seriously wrong.

“Every symptom – to be tired, weight loss, go to the toilet more often – can explain you some kind of something else,” she said.

In her case, Bonnie feels the awareness of symptoms “everything”, but admits that she did not initially feel comfortable about them, despite being a ‘very open’ person.

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Stigma about symptoms is a problem that, according to experts, is common in intestinal cancer, the fourth most common type of cancer in the UK.

“People feel a little embarrassed to talk about poo and blood or bleeding from your bottom,” says Genevieve Edwards, CEO of Barm Cancer UK.

“But unless we feel comfortable … Cancer stays in the shade and that’s when it’s the deadliest,” she told Sky News.

“If you have been diagnosed at stage one, more than nine out of ten people will survive it. It is very survivable.

“If you have been diagnosed in phase four, it drops to less than one in ten. So it’s very important,” she said.

Intestinal cancer UK says that less than 40% of people are diagnosed in the early stages of cancer, stages one and two.

Nearly half are diagnosed in the later stages, three and four.