Bowel cancer: How to check your poo-poo weda you get di disease

Dame Deborah James wey die from bowel cancer at di age of 40 for di UK bin dey tell everyone to check dia poo as part of her campaign to raise awareness about di disease.

Bowel cancer na di general name for di cancer wey dey begin for di large intestine. Dem dey sometimes call am colon or rectal cancer.

How to sabi bowel cancer?

Three tins na im dey to look out for:

blood for inside poo-poo wey just happun for no obvious reason – e fit be bright red or dark red.

Change for how you dey poo – If you go toilet plenty times or your poo become hard or watery.

If you dey feel tummy pain or wen e be like say your belle full and e dey tight.oda symptoms like:

You lost weight

You dey feel like say you neva empty your bowel afta you don toilet finish.

You dey feel more tired or dizzy dan usual

These symptoms no necessarily mean bowel cancer, but e dey advisable to see doctor if you notice dem for three weeks or longer and if tins no just feel right.

E mean say if you diagnose am quickly, e go dey easier to treat if na cancer.

Sometimes bowel cancer fit stop waste from passing through di bowel and dis fit cause blockage.

E fit cause serious severe tummy pain, constipation and sickness. You go need to see your GP or go to your nearest A&E straight away for dat kain situation.

How I fit check my poo-poo?

If you go toilet, check your poo-poo well-well and no dey shy to tok about am.

Check for blood inside your poo-poo as well as bleeding from di bottom.

Bright red blood fit come from swollen blood vessels (piles) for your back passage, bowel cancer also fit cause am.

Dark red or black blood for your poo fit come from your bowel or stomach and you fit also notice change for di way you dey poo-poo like make di poo-poo dey watery more often dan normal and e go also dey frequent.

Wetin dey cause bowel cancer?

No-one dey sure exactly wetin be di cause but e get some factors wey fit make am develop:

Age: as pesin dey grow, chances dey for pesin to get cancer and bowel cancer no dey different. Most cases dey happun in adults ova 50
Diet: If you dey chop food wit plenty red meat and processed meat like sausages, bacon, salami.

Cigarette: smoking cigarettes fit increase di risk of many cancers.

Alcohol: drinking too much alcohol

Weight: di chances dey high wit pipo wey dey overweight or obese

Polyps: If you get history of polyps in your bowel wey fit grow into tumours

E dey pass down through families?

In most cases, bowel cancer no be hereditary but you suppose tell your doctor if you get any close relatives wey dem diagnose before di age of 50.

Some genetic conditions, like sLynch syndrome, mean say pipo get much greater risk of developing bowel cancer, but e fit also dey prevented if doctors know about di condition.

How to reduce your risk?

More dan half of bowel cancers dey prevented if pipo follow healthier lifestyle, scientists tok.

Dis one mean say if dem do more exercise, chop more fibre and less fat and drink about six to eight glasses of water a day.

Dem must also inform dia doctor wit any concerning symptoms and do cancer screening test if di doctor suggest am.

How dem dey diagnose bowel cancer?

Colonoscopy – na one procedure wey dey use camera look inside di belle – or a flexible sigmoidoscopy wey go just look inside part of di bowel.

More dan 90% of pipo wey dem diagnose wit bowel cancer for di early stage go survive for five years or more – compared wit 44% wey dem diagnose at di latest stage.

Di chances of survival for UK don double in di last 40 years as more dan half of di patients now fit live for more dan 10 years or more compare wit one in five in di 1970s.

Like many cancers, 15 to 40-year-olds get di highest survival rates, because cancer dey more common and more deadly in older pipo.

Wetin be di treatments wey dey available?

Bowel cancer dey curable, especially if you detect am early.

Treatments dey available at whatever stage your cancer dey detected, doctors go follow you tok through di available treatments.

E fit be surgery, or chemotherapy and radiotherapy, or one or di oda depending on your individual cancer.

Wetin be di different stages of cancer?

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Stage 1 cancers – e dey small and neva spread
Stage 2 cancers – dem big and stil neva spread
Stage 3 cancers – e don spread now to some of di surrounding tissue like lymph nodes
Stage 4 cancers – don spread to anoda organ for di body, creating a secondary tumour.