The Walkman and a Chopper bike were staples of growing up in the 60s and 70s... and now, part of a rallying call to help save lives. Bowel cancer is the region's second biggest cause of cancer deaths. Now North West Cancer Research have launched their latest campaign focusing on early detection of the disease.
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00:00 The Walkman and a chopper bike were staples of growing up in the 60s and 70s.
00:07 Now they're part of a rallying call to help save lives with a new campaign from Northwest Cancer Research.
00:15 We're using the Remember When line to make people who are between the ages of 54 and 74
00:24 think about returning their bowel cancer screening kit. So these are sent out free from the NHS every two years.
00:33 But what we find is that around a third of people don't do the test and they don't return them.
00:39 So we're hoping to just raise that return rate, remind people to do it.
00:44 It may not be fun, but what we want people to do is to do the test and send it back to the NHS.
00:50 Among those supporting the initiative is ex-Everton and Republic of Ireland footballer Kevin Sheedy.
00:56 Kevin was diagnosed with bowel cancer aged 52.
00:59 The former midfielder finished treatment five years ago and is passionate about raising awareness.
01:04 My mother passed away through bowel cancer.
01:08 They said it was Irritable Bowel Syndrome and by the time they found out it was too late.
01:15 My father, he had bowel cancer but successfully survived.
01:20 So it's always been in the family and it was about 12 years ago that I was going to the toilet more often than usual.
01:28 My wife commented I was costing us a fortune in loo rolls.
01:32 And then I was seeing there was blood in my poo.
01:36 So I immediately went to my GP, had my blood tested and a stool sample tested.
01:43 Everything came back clear, but the GP said he was going to send me for an endoscopy just to rule things out.
01:52 And that turned out to save my life.
01:55 As a whole, rates of cancer in the North West are 25% higher than the rest of England.
02:01 Compared to the rest of the country, we do have high rates of bowel cancer here in the North West,
02:07 and particularly at Merseyside as well.
02:10 So yeah, anything that we can do in order to raise people's awareness around the test kits that are coming out,
02:16 but also the symptoms of bowel cancer and the things that people need to look out for.
02:21 So obviously, the obvious one that people talk about is, you know, look out for blood in your poo,
02:27 but actually there can be other things as well.
02:29 So like a change of bowel habits or maybe pain in your stomach,
02:33 feeling that you haven't gone to the toilet properly.
02:36 All of those things could be early warning signs of bowel cancer,
02:40 but the best way to pick it up is through the tests.
02:43 North West Cancer Research funds projects that aim to reduce such inequalities
02:49 through tackling the cause, improving care and finding the cure for cancer.
02:54 You know, I used to get the camera test every year.
02:57 Now it's just gone, I think about four years was the last one now, which is a good sign again.
03:01 So yeah, no, I'm enjoying life.
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