MINISTER OF State for Fisheries Tony Killeen has spoken of his experience of bowel cancer as part of a campaign by the Irish Cancer Society (ICS).
Mr Killeen (56), who was diagnosed with the disease last year, has had surgery and is undergoing a course of chemotherapy.
“The advice for anyone who has a little niggling doubt about their health that they’ve put to the back of their minds, the advice would be at least go to the GP and have whatever follow-up examinations that are required,” he said.
“I’m quite sure if I had gone to the GP a relatively short time earlier, I would have escaped some of the surgery and almost certainly escaped chemotherapy. If I’d waited a bit longer, my prospects would be an awful lot worse.”
Mr Killeen has a family history of the disease – his mother developed bowel cancer in her 60s – which is another risk factor.
The ICS yesterday unveiled a major campaign to increase awareness of the disease which killed 924 people in 2005 alone, and also called for the roll-out of a nationwide screening programme for people over 50 years of age.
A survey by the ICS revealed one in three people cannot name a single symptom associated with bowel cancer, despite it being the second most common cause of cancer death in Ireland. In 2005, 2,184 individuals were diagnosed.
Early detection is vital but currently more than half of patients in Ireland are found to have stage three or four bowel cancer – the most advanced stages, which have poor survival rates.
Four in 10 people believe that people under 50 years of age are most at risk of developing bowel cancer when in reality 90 per cent of people diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2005 were over 50.
The most common symptoms of the disease are rectal bleeding, constipation, lower abdominal pain and weight loss. Anaemia or a low blood count is also common.
The ICS said long waiting lists for colonoscopies are contributing to the high death rate.
“While there has been an improvement in the waiting times for colonoscopies, there are still 287 patients waiting longer than six months for this vital procedure. With more than half of bowel cancer patients being diagnosed very late, it is vital that this crucial test be available within weeks, not months,” the ICS’s head of advocacy and communication Kathleen O’Meara said.