Dame Deborah James’s lobbying convinces Andrex to put symptoms of bowel cancer on 29million packs of loo roll

metro.co.uk:

cancer after Andrex announced it would be putting the symptoms on 29million packs of toilet paper. The You, Me and The Big C podcast host, 40, is currently undergoing end of life care after battling terminal bowel cancer for five years.

She has raised over £6million for cancer research through her BowelBabe fund and had been lobbying for supermarkets to display the symptoms on their toilet roll packets so that more people were aware of the warning signs to look for, in the hopes of catching cancer early.Toilet paper brand Andrex has now announced it will make a change to its packaging to display the common signs of bowel cancer, the fourth most common cancer and the second biggest cancer killer in the UK.Andrex and Bowel Cancer UK have teamed up to put the vital information on packaging, which will start to hit shelves from September, aiming to have it on all of their packaging within the next year, as well as making a £65,000 initial donation to the charity.

Consumers will also be able to scan a QR code on the packs, redirecting them to Bowel Cancer UK’s website where they can find out more information.The most common symptoms for bowel cancer include bleeding from the bottom or blood in the stools, a persistent and unexplained change in bowel habits, unexplained weight loss, extreme tiredness for no obvious reason and a pain or lump in the stomach.

Dan Howell, VP and Managing Director at Kimberly-Clark said of the partnership: ‘We’re incredibly honoured to partner with Bowel Cancer UK in helping to raise awareness of the disease through our Andrex brand. ‘Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK with the second highest mortality rate.