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It’s bowel cancer awareness month, and I have been very fortunate to have spent the last few days in New York watching my favourite band The Alarm, and soaking up what this amazing city has to offer. The bowel bears were there in force, so there are going to be lots and lots of posts. As you can see three of them were placed on top of the vinyls in front of Mike Peters during his set at Generation Records on Record Store Day.
Mike was playing an acoustic set at the store to celebrate the release of Strength Live ’85 which is a live double LP of a live radio broadcast from Boston in 1985. I was fortunate enough enough to get there quite early, which meant I managed to grab a copy before they sold out, and I got a great position to enjoy the set.
Mike signed the copies of the album for everyone and did a photo with everyone who was there who wanted to meet him. He certainly knows how to look after his fans. I also asked his wife Jules if she would do a photo with #bowelbear Charlie, and what a great photo we got! Jules has had breast cancer, and has been very public in sharing her story to help others. She also features in my new book The Record, which is coming very soon.
The idea behind the bowel bears is to help raise awareness about bowel cancer, and funds for Bowel Cancer UK, all being done in memory of my mum, who died from this awful disease in 2016. Bowel cancer is the second biggest cancer killer in the UK with 16,000 people dying every year, but if caught early it can be successfully treated in over 90% of cases. However, just 15% of cases are currently caught at the early stage 1. Survival rates drop dramatically at later staging, with only 7% surviving for five years or more at stage 4. Improving early detection rates is key to improving survival rates.
The bears are a fun way to raise awareness, and you can take them with you anywhere, and send photos to me to keep spreading the message. You can buy a stop bowel cancer bear from rivers2cross.com.
