DAME Deborah James has inspired a major change to packs of loo roll as she continues to make a legacy in her final days.
Trending In The News writer, who has incurable bowel cancer, has been calling for packaging to list symptoms of the disease.
Andrex has committed to raising awareness of symptoms over its products from July, following Marks & Spencer.
M&S kicked things off when one of its employees, Cara Hoofe, came up with the idea, having been diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in 2016 at 32-years-old.
She was inspired to put forward the idea by Dame Debs after seeing all the work she has done to raise awareness.
Deb said she would be going after each supermarket in a mission to get their own-brand bog roll revamped.
Read more on Dame Debs
And she said she was “bored of puppies” on loo roll – the key feature of Andrex’s marketing.
So, from September, an initial 29 million packs of one of the UK’s best-selling toilet roll, Andrex Classic Clean, will feature a QR code.
Upon scanning it on their phone, consumers will be redirected to Bowel Cancer UK’s symptoms information.
The symptoms are:
- Bleeding from your bottom and/or blood in your bowel movements
- A persistent and unexplained change in bowel habit
- Unexplained weight loss
- Extreme tiredness for no obvious reason
- A pain or lump in your tummy
The ambition is to update all packaging on the full Andrex toilet roll range within the next year, over 90 million packs, reaching one in three homes.
Dan Howell, VP & Managing Director UK&I at Kimberly-Clark, which owns Andrex, said: “We’re incredibly honoured to partner with Bowel Cancer UK in helping to raise awareness of the disease through our Andrex brand.
“Our announcement today is just the start of our work with the charity, and we’re committed to making it an ongoing partnership.”
Genevieve Edwards, CEO of Bowel Cancer UK, said the charity were “thrilled” about the move which will “undoubtedly save lives”.
“[Bowel cancer is] the UK’s fourth most common cancer, with someone diagnosed with the disease every 15 minutes in the UK.
“Bowel cancer is treatable and curable especially if diagnosed early, but 60 per cent of people are diagnosed at later stages when it is much more difficult to treat.”
The charity’s #GetOnARoll campaign is urging all supermarkets to follow suit.
Deb’s has been on a mission to get people to check their poo since she was told she had bowel cancer at the age of 35, in 2016.
Now 40-years-old, the campaigner has been told her disease is no longer treatable, and she is receiving palliative care at her parent’s home.
She launched the Bowelbabe Fund on the day she revealed she didn’t have much longer left, asking followers to “buy me a drink to see me out this world, by donating”.
Read More on Trending In The News
Debs, a mum-of-two, told Lorraine in June: “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.”
Donate to the Bowelbabe Fund by clicking here.
