Dame Deborah James 'taking on every supermarket to get cancer symptoms on loo rolls'

Virgin Radio

8 Jun 2022, 14:55

Determined Deborah James is flying the flag for bowel cancer awareness and calling on supermarkets and brands to act now.

The Dame, who heads Bowelbabe Fund, wants the symptoms of bowel cancer to be displayed on toilet roll across the nation - and M&S have already signed up to the idea starting from September.

Staff member Cara Hoofe was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in 2016 at 32 and was inspired by Deborah to spread the word about the disease.

The 5 bowel cancer signs include: 

Bleeding in the stools

A persistent and unexplained change in bowel habit

Unexplained weight loss

Extreme tiredness for no obvious reason

A pain or lump in the tummy

Deborah wrote on Instagram: “We are taking on this poo system challenge - supermarket by supermarket! Who is next!”

She added: “We are taking supermarkets head on. @tescofood Yep I’m coming for you!”

She continued: “Can we have a puppy break for a month or so @andrexuk ?! A stretch too far?! I’ll look after the puppy!!”

The mum-of-two is receiving palliative care for her incurable bowel cancer at home and told Lorraine yesterday: “Forget about the puppies, I'm bored of the puppies.

"We need actual information signposted on those loo rolls so I'm hoping lots of other big brands will now go ‘yeah, hang on, this makes massive sense. This is what we need to be doing’.

"It's the start of things to come, I think we should now do a big shout out to other companies now, saying come on where's your signs and symptoms.”

Dame Deborah said in her last episode of BBC podcast You, Me and The Big C: “I can’t leave on any other word apart from check your poo.

“I still have images of me dancing in poo outfits everywhere. So maybe I should leave on that final word. Check your poo.”