For Bowel Cancer Awareness Month the team in Wards 8 East and North of Mater Private Hospital Brisbane have celebrated Red Apple Day concluding a month of activity to raise awareness for the second highest cause of cancer related death in Australia.

Each month a small team from the ward is allocated an awareness month where they organise experts to give presentations, fundraise, hold morning teas, decorate the ward, put up informational material and circulate latest medical Journals on the disease.

Nurse Unit Manager of Ward 8 East Rob Cornish said raising awareness for bowel cancer was extremely important as 15,000 people are diagnosed each year.

“The team for Bowel Cancer pushed the Bowel Screening Tool, which can be obtained through a GP or online as 90 per cent of bowel cancer can be treated successfully if it’s caught early enough,” he said.

“Their goal was just to have staff members or visitors take up the test as one in twelve people will develop bowel cancer in their life time.”

The team noted that signs to look out for her blood in the bowel movements, unexplained weight loss, persistent change in bowel habits and severe abnormal pain, the team also noted that changes in diet and exercise could reduce the risk by up to 75 per cent.

Nurse Unit Manager of Ward 8 North Ross Nicholson said the educational material provided was to inform not only team members but patients and visitors too.

“These awareness months are great for retraining staff and keeping them up-to-date with cancer related information however we are also providing an information source to our patients and visitors while they are in the hospital,” he said.

“We held a Red Apple Day morning tea as the apple is the logo of Bowel Cancer Australia, we handed out apples on the ward which are a nutritious source of dietary fibre.”

You can find out more about Bowel Cancer here, https://www.bowelcanceraustralia.org/