We fund cutting edge scientific and surgical research into bowel cancer and other bowel problems
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Bowel & Cancer Research

Bowel & Cancer Research is a charity that funds ground-breaking research into bowel cancer and other bowel diseases.

The central vision of the charity is that no-one should die of bowel cancer, have to live with chronic bowel disease or face life with a permanent stoma.

With this in mind, we also raise awareness of the symptoms of bowel cancer and other diseases, challenging taboos, and encourage and support people to get more involved in research. Through these activities we aim to Save and Change lives.

Bowel & Cancer Research: The Future

Our commitment to research into bowel cancer and related diseases has driven us, along with our partners at Barts & the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, to fund and deliver the UK’s first National Centre for Bowel Disease and Surgical Innovation (NCBRSI). It became operational at the end of March 2012. The centre features a unique and cutting edge human tissue laboratory and will bring together a wide range of the most current research disciplines in one facility.

Saving Lives and Changing Lives

Linking with the NCBRSI, we pursue our aim to Save and Change Lives through research by funding two programmes

  1. Saving Lives: improving survival rates for bowel cancer sufferers through pioneering research into the spread and behaviour of cancer in humans.
  2. Changing Lives: investigating the causes, effects and treatment of bowel diseases other than cancer, specifically chronic diseases, such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease and chronic symptoms, such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome and, through pioneering innovations in surgery and device development, improve the quality of life of patients. In particular we aim to eliminate the need for patients to rely upon a stoma.

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We give small “pump priming” grants for 12-18 months enabling researchers to investigate their ideas and gather the data for major grant applications and also commit to funding a national research fellowship, open to researchers around the UK for a piece of work which fits with the main themes of the NCBRSI.

Learn your BCA

We can save lives if everyone who has the symptoms of bowel cancer goes to the GP to get checked out. Our campaign “Learn your BCA” focuses on the 3 major signs, Bleeding from the bottom, Change in bowel habits, Abdominal pain. We know that it’s not pleasant often to talk openly about such things but catching bowel cancer early can make the difference between life and death and no one should ignore these signs.

What a Bummer

We take our research funding very seriously, but because people are often reluctant to think or talk about bowel function, our ‘What a Bummer’ campaign aims to bring out the fun side of bottoms.  Most people know at least one “bum joke”, so please visit the What a Bummer website where you can not only read others but also submit your own bottom related jokes. Together we can “kick bowel cancer up the arse”!

 

Cancer stem cell

By 2020 the number of individuals in the UK who will develop cancer will rise to 1 in 2, according to a report from Macmillan Cancer Support.

In 1992, the proportion of people in the UK who got cancer during their life was 32%. This increased to 44% in 2010, an increase of more than a third.

Macmillan said this figure would continue rising over the next decade, levelling off at around 47% between 2020 and 2030.

There is also, however, a corresponding increase in the numbers of people surviving cancer compared to 20 years ago.

In 1992, 45,000 people, or 21% of those who had cancer, did not die from the disease.

This increased to around 90,000 (35%) in 2010 and was predicted to rise to four in 10 people (38%) surviving cancer and dying from another cause by 2020.

The increase in the numbers of people developing cancer is directly linked to the numbers of us who will live longer.

The increase in the number of people surviving is a result of better diagnosis and treatment. In terms of bowel cancer, the earlier the disease is diagnosed the better, as surgical treatment – currently the only efffective cure – is much more likely to be sucssessful.

The report also highlighted the after-effects of cancer treatment, and the return to “normal” life, which is something that we are very conscious of as a research charity with such proximity to patients.

Our challenge in the light of this report is to allocate our limited resources as wisely as we can, with an eye on cancer survivorship as well as diagnosis and treatments.

For more on this story visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22796220.

 

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