When I spotted blood in my poo I feared the worst after watching my dad face cancer, says BBC star Gaby Roslin
IT is not all glitz and glam in the celeb world – Bowel Cancer Awareness Month is upon us and stars are sharing their “poo tales”.
It is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, with 44,000 new cases a year, but diagnosing it early makes a difference.
Launching today, The Toilet Talk is a social media series inspired by Sun columnist Dame Deborah James, who died of the disease age 40 in 2022
TV and radio presenter Gaby Roslin, 60, is among those being gutsy and telling her most embarrassing story and she said: “If this series helps even one person catch their bowel cancer early, it’s worth it.”
The series aims to encourage people to talk about their poo and bowel habits with friends, family and those they trust.
The hope is that by doing so, people will feel more comfortable and empowered to speak to a doctor if they do spot something unusual.
Nearly a third of UK adults say they would be too embarrassed to talk to their doctor about poo or bowel changes, data shows.
Symptoms of bowel cancer can be spotted in the loo.
Blood in stool, on the toilet paper, or changes to bowel habits such as constipation or diarrhoea, are all key signs.
Shout from rooftops
“If there’s blood or changes in your poo, don’t sit on it — see a doctor!” Gaby says.
Dame Debs set up the Bowelbabe Fund with Cancer Research UK after years of campaigning to break the “poo taboo” and raise awareness of the disease.
She was diagnosed aged 35, after blaming symptoms such as “going what felt like 100 times per day” and fatigue on being a full-time working super mum.
Deborah launched the fund after she returned to her parents’ home in Woking to spend her final days, hoping to raise £250,000.
But she smashed her target and before she passed away in June 2022, the total stood at £6.7million.
Today, that figure is over £17million.
The Fund on Monday announced the 11th project it will help support – £2million will go to the CRC-STARS initiative, in which more than 40 top scientists from the UK and Europe will study personalised medicine for bowel cancer patients.
Remembering her late friend Deb, Gaby says: “Her wicked sense of humour and passion for raising awareness saved countless lives.
“She showed that talking about bowel cancer doesn’t have to be scary, it can even be joyful.”
Gaby has been raising awareness of bowel cancer for three decades.
Her dad, Clive, a former BBC radio announcer, was diagnosed with the disease in the late Nineties. Then, even the word “bowel” was considered too taboo for TV.
Gaby says: “We wanted to publicise and we were being interviewed, and the journalist who was interviewing us said, ‘Sorry Clive, you just can’t say poo’.
“Dad said: ‘But that’s what I’m talking about — bowel cancer’.
“‘Can you not mention bowels?’, they said.”
Mum-of-two Dame Deborah danced around in a poo costume on public transport, still looking glamorous, and shouted from the rooftops about the signs and symptoms of bowel cancer.
Gaby says: “I thought, I’ve got to get her on my radio show because she’s talking about poo, and as a family, that’s something that has affected us, too. So she came in and we just got on.
“We became friends and had a lovely friendship.”
Debs spearheaded The Sun’s No Time 2 Lose campaign with Bowel Cancer UK that successfully lobbied for the age of bowel cancer screening to be dropped from 60.
Now everyone in England will receive a test every two years from the age of 50 to 74.
The at-home test checks for blood in the poo, a sign of potential cancer. Gaby says: “It comes through the door and you take a little scoop of your poo (with a stick) and send it back to the lab and get your results.”
The mum-of-two has previously had a scare after finding blood in her poo in 2001.
Gaby went to the GP but was relieved when told it was piles from after childbirth.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I need to find out about it’, because I obviously had a history of bowel cancer in my family,” she says.
What are the red flag warning signs of bowel cancer?
IT'S the fourth most common cancer in the UK, the second deadliest - yet bowel cancer can be cured, if you catch it early enough.
While screening is one way of ensuring early diagnosis, there are things everyone can do to reduce their risk of the deadly disease.
Being aware of the signs and symptoms of bowel cancer, spotting any changes and checking with your GP can prove a life-saver.
If you notice any of the signs, don’t be embarrassed and don’t ignore them. Doctors are used to seeing lots of patients with bowel problems.
The five red-flag symptoms of bowel cancer include:
- Bleeding from the back passage, or blood in your poo
- A change in your normal toilet habits – going more frequently for example
- Pain or a lump in your tummy
- Extreme tiredness
- Losing weight
Tumours in the bowel typically bleed, which can cause a shortage of red blood cells, known as anaemia. It can cause tiredness and sometimes breathlessness.
In some cases bowel cancer can block the bowel, this is known as a bowel obstruction.
Other signs include:
- Gripping pains in the abdomen
- Feeling bloated
- Constipation and being unable to pass wind
- Being sick
- Feeling like you need to strain – like doing a number two – but after you’ve been to the loo
While these are all signs to watch out for, experts warn the most serious is noticing blood in your stools.
But, they warn it can prove tricky for doctors to diagnose the disease, because in most cases these symptoms will be a sign of a less serious disease.
Recalling her dad’s diagnosis, Gaby says: “He came back from a holiday with mum and told us he’d started pooing himself.
“Then he found some blood in his poo and told his brother. Thank goodness he did, for his brother — a doctor — urged him to seek help immediately.
“It was caught early. Twenty-nine years later my dad is still alive,” Gaby says.
Early diagnosis saves lives — in England, more than 90 per cent of people with bowel cancer survive the disease for five years or more, if diagnosed at the earliest stage.
EARLY DIAGNOSIS
This falls to ten per cent when bowel cancer is diagnosed at the most advanced stage four.
That’s why talking about it is so important.
“I can tell you a very weird story,” Gaby says.
“I went ice skating and realised I needed a poo. There were lots of people on the rink and as I skated off my husband said, ‘Where are you going?’, and I said, ‘I need a poo!’ as I cut through . . . as you do!
“You know those times you just need to go.
“As I pooed with my ice skates on I realised how ridiculous it was.
“I went back out on the rink and thought, ‘No one knows I just pooed in my ice skates’.
“I have a very warped sense of humour.”
But while bowel cancer is no laughing matter, talking about poo doesn’t need to be daunting.
“If there’s any slightest change, if you are a little bit worried, talk to family, talk to friends,” Gaby says.