rivers2cross

Why am I posting a photo from back in 2019 when the curls were out in full force… Well tonight I had one of those experiences that I just have to share. My next door neighbour had taken in a package for me from the Royal Mail, so he knocked on my door to hand it to me, and we got talking as you do.

Now I don’t know him that well, perhaps not surprisingly as he explained tonight that he has actually been away for 3 years and only just returned. He told me that he’d gone away to live with his mum who had cancer. Sadly she has recently passed away. He talked about her illness, interestingly he said that his mum’s chemotherapy had been stopped for a while during the pandemic. So many stories of this… I then told him that I had lost my mum to cancer a few years ago. He asked if I didn’t mind saying, but was it bowel cancer? I was slightly surprised, but he explained that he had seen one of my Stop Bowel Cancer T-shirts on my washing line before his mum was diagnosed with bowel cancer. He said that it was seeing the t-shirt that connected him with his mum’s symptoms and the possibility of bowel cancer. Without seeing the t-shirt, he said, his mum would have died a lot sooner as the cancer would have been detected at a later stage.

It was the last thing I would ever have expected a neighbour say to me. Although very sad that he has lost his mum, it was very humbling to know of the impact of the t-shirt on the washing line. It kind of makes me realise how important some of these mad raising awareness ideas are, and how all the time and effort spent doing all these things is so so worth it. You simply never know when someone might see a t-shirt, a teddy bear, or hear a song about poo! We must keep on doing what we are doing and carry on raising awareness about this awful disease. Bowel cancer is usually very treatable if caught at the early stage 1. Sadly, especially in the young, too many people are still being diagnosed at stage 4 (advanced) where the long term survival rates are much lower.

Know your own body and if you have any concerns go and see your GP x