Deputy Director of Public Health Dr Ross Keat discusses the Isle of Man's bowel cancer campaign

Transcript

00:00So my name is Ross Keat and I am the Deputy Director of Public Health and I work for the

00:04Cabinet Office in the Isle of Man government. April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month and we're

00:09running this campaign for a number of reasons, mainly because we've sort of noticed in the

00:16wider literature that there is some evidence that individuals who are younger are receiving

00:22diagnoses of bowel cancer now. Whilst we haven't seen that currently on the Isle of Man, I think

00:26it's really important that we're sort of bowel aware and that individuals who aren't of the

00:32age to be eligible for screening programmes are aware of the signs and symptoms that might

00:36be associated with bowel cancer. So typically this involves, will involve things like blood

00:42in your poo or unexplained bloating or pain or lumps in your tummy. You might feel like you've

00:49got constipation and diarrhoea very regularly or you still feel like you need to use the

00:53bathroom after you've already been. So it's making people aware who aren't eligible for

00:58the screening yet that these are the signs and symptoms and if you're experiencing them,

01:02to go and access your healthcare provider as soon as possible.

01:06So the bowel cancer screening, it is from age 60 to 75. You will be invited every two years

01:12to participate in this and the operation of that is run from across in England. So people

01:19will be invited from an NHS trust. I think it's in the Midlands currently. They will send

01:24you a kit which is for self testing. So you can probably imagine what you need to send back

01:29with that. And then you will receive your results again from the Midlands. So that's from age

01:3460 to 75 every two years. But we are currently undertaking a clinical review of all of our screening

01:41services on the island to make sure that they best meet the needs of the Manx people. And

01:46so all adult screening programs will be in scope for that. Across in England, they're currently

01:53underway in reducing the screening age from 60 to 50. And that's been done sequentially

01:59over a couple of years. And they're nearly now down at 50 years of age. So part of our

02:04review will be looking at the evidence that England have collated, wider countries have collated,

02:09to see if that holds true for the Manx population. And to make sure that increasing the sort of range

02:15of screening doesn't cause any unintended harms. Normally, these are problems that you will notice

02:21ongoing for a week or two. And if you're sort of noticing that things have changed very quickly,

02:28you're noticing blood more regularly in your stools, and that can either be bright red blood

02:31or sort of darker, tarrier coloured blood, to access your GP as soon as possible. It really is

02:38the idea that you might have a symptom which seems quite innocuous, but it really carries on for a week or two.

02:43And it's completely out of the ordinary for you. That's when I'd recommend you reach out to your

02:49healthcare provider. So things that you can do to reduce your risk of potentially getting bowel

02:53cancer. None of them are going to particularly be a surprise, but it's all about staying active,

02:58not leading a sedentary lifestyle, increasing your intake of fibre, fresh fruit, vegetables,

03:03trying to get your fibre day in and reducing consumption or over consumption of red meats and

03:09processed foods like sausages and bacon. Smoking and alcohol consumption are both also linked with

03:15an increased incidence of bowel cancer.