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Every year in the UK, more than 41,000 people are told that they have bowel cancer. It is the 3rd most common cancer and only lung cancer takes more lives. More than 300,000 people live with Inflammatory Bowel Disease and thousands with chronic conditions such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, constipation and bowel incontinence.

Bowel conditions are common and they can have a devastating impact on people鈥檚 lives. Bowel cancer takes lives every day and chronic conditions such as Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn鈥檚 disease can isolate people from family and friends, making the most simple things in life such as a trip to the shops impossible.

Bowel & Cancer Research believes that no one should die of bowel cancer or have to live with chronic bowel disease.听

We want to be able to better diagnose bowel disease and improve treatments so we fund the best science across the UK and support our next generation of research experts through a dedicated PhD studentship programme.

We want to shine a light on bowel cancer and disease and support those that live with them so we run campaigns to improve the public鈥檚 knowledge of bowel disease and highlight the key signs that should encourage people to visit their GPs.

I am really pleased to be presenting the appeal for Bowel & Cancer Research.

As a medical doctor I am aware of the devastating effects of bowel cancer and bowel disease on those who live with them, their families and friends.听I am also a passionate believer that we will see real improvements in how we diagnose and treat these diseases by advancing medical research.听People are surviving bowel cancer who wouldn鈥檛 have if they had been diagnosed 20 years ago. The improvement in treatments for chronic conditions such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease, and even constipation have made people鈥檚 lives better.

But we鈥檙e really just beginning, and so much more needs to be done so that people don鈥檛 need to fear a diagnosis of bowel cancer or bowel disease.听Bowel & Cancer Research has contributed so much over more than 25 years and can do so much with your support.

31 year old Andy from Toxteth in Liverpool was diagnosed with stage IV bowel cancer in November 2016. By the time it was diagnosed it had spread to his lungs and liver. Survival rates for late bowel cancer are very poor and decline dramatically from 90% with early diagnosis to just 6%.

Andy dismissed the early symptoms of the disease, which can include chronic abdominal pain, bleeding from the bottom and a change in bowel habits, finally going to the GP at the insistence of his mum and girlfriend. The first few weeks following his diagnosis the family were in shock.

He is currently undergoing treatment and is determined not to sit around and mope. To find something on which to focus during a time when the family feel so powerless, Andy and his mum did a skydive together in September. They wanted to do something memorable and to raise money for research into the disease so that in future other families won鈥檛 have to share their experience. 听

Tanya was just 12 years old when she first started to experience bowel problems following a bout of glandular fever.

Until she was 14 she was repeatedly told that the pain was all in her head and that her constant tiredness was just because she was lazy. At 14 she was admitted to hospital after vomiting blood and, getting steadily worse, was finally admitted to hospital for three months when she was just 19, unable to eat or walk, in crippling pain and connected to various tubes.

Now 26 Tanya has been diagnosed with听Inflammatory Bowel Disease, a condition that can affect any part of the digestive system from the mouth to the anus. There is no cure for Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Tanya lives her life with regular hospital visits, a daily cocktail of drugs and careful attention to what she eats and drinks.

Tanya works as a Nutritional Therapist and is determined to use her experience to help others.

Paul was diagnosed with stage III bowel cancer in 2008. He had seen his GP on various occasions with his symptoms but had been dismissed as suffering from haemorrhoids.

Despite his late diagnosis Paul was very lucky and, when finally referred, responded well to treatment and underwent keyhole surgery to remove the tumour.

When recovering from his treatment Paul realised that the outcome for him would have been very different had he been diagnosed 10 or 20 years previously.

Paul found Bowel & Cancer Research and was impressed by the research that the charity was supporting. He became a trustee of the charity in 2010 and the charity鈥檚 Chair of Trustees in 2015. He is a passionate advocate for investment in research and in 2018 will be leading a team of cyclists from John O鈥橤roats to Land鈥檚 End to celebrate his 10th year being cancer free and raise funds for Bowel & Cancer Research.