rivers2cross

Chapter 18 of The Record features Olivia Rowlands who I chatted with at the beginning of 2019. Liv lives in St. Andrews with her husband Sam, but sadly events conspired against us, and I wasn’t able to make the trip to Scotland to meet her in person. We’ve known each other on social media for some time, and Liv is photographed here wearing one of the Stop Bowel Cancer t-shirts, which she kindly bought from me.

Liv is another young person to have been diagnosed with bowel cancer, and has had a very tough few years, but after her stoma reversal in 2018 she is now beginning to pick up the pieces to her life. The wonderful and big news is through the wonders of surrogacy pregnancy Liv and Sam are expecting their first baby. For the chapter in The Record we talked about her illness, and life before being diagnosed. Her first record is an absolute classic!

The Record is out now, and all proceeds raised from sales are donated to Bowel Cancer UK. I am writing the book in memory of my mum who died of this awful disease three years ago. As well as featuring Liv and other amazing people from the bowel cancer community, the book features my experiences and meeting with many famous people from television, sport, music and comedy. Click here to see all the ways to order a copy of the book.

Bowel cancer claims 16,000 lives in the UK, and is the second biggest cancer killer. However if caught early at stage 1 it is very treatable, and the five year survival rate is over 90%. When detected at the late stage 4 the five year survival rate drops dramatically to 7%. This shows how crucial early diagnosis is to getting a better outcome. Knowing the symptoms is so important.