DEBORAH James has said she is ‘bored’ of seeing puppies on toilet roll as she urges more brands to signpost people to deadly cancer signs.
Trending In The News writer has helped thousands of Brits to not be afraid when it comes to talking about number twos.
Just last month, loo roll inspired by the 40-year-old was revealed, warning of the five bowel cancer signs you must never ignore.
The campaigner has now said that more brands need to get behind this.
Bowel Cancer UK has teamed up with M&S to help save lives by raising awareness of the symptoms.
In order to encourage its 30 million customers to be on the look out, the signs will be on toilet roll packaging in its stores from September.
Read more on Deborah James
Speaking on Lorraine this morning, Deborah said: “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.
“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”.
Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK and the second biggest cancer killer.
Nearly 43,000 people are diagnosed with it every year, however the disease is treatable and curable, especially if diagnosed early.
For the five symptoms you need to know – always remember the word BOWEL:
- B – bleeding from your bottom or blood in your poo
- O – obvious change in toilet habits
- W – weight loss and you don’t know why
- E – extreme tiredness
- L – lump or pain – usually in your stomach or back passage
The idea for the loo roll came about after M&S staff member Cara Hoofe was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in 2016 at 32-years-old.
She was inspired to put forward the idea by Debs after seeing all the work she has done to raise awareness.
Cara, who works in the M&S clothing and home team said: “Deborah is a huge inspiration to me and so many other young people diagnosed with bowel cancer.
“I feel fortunate my journey since diagnosis has taken a different path but I want to give a voice to all those who can no longer use theirs to raise awareness.
“Early detection is so important and my main message to people is don’t feel embarrassed, get things checked out and speak to your doctor.
“I’ve worked at M&S for over ten years and am so happy they are putting my idea into action and so quickly – I’m hoping other companies will consider joining us.”
Speaking on Lorraine today, Debs praised Cara for all her hard work.
Read More on Trending In The News
She said: “Congratulations Cara. I’m so pleased that you are talking about the hard work that you have put in, and what you have achieved.’
‘I know we’ve both gone through bowel cancer and we’ve spoken so many times about getting signs and symptoms on loo roll but you finally did it and I am really really proud of you for doing that.”
