Look Loud & Proud - and Help Save Lives

28 October 2000

Two displays are being held at West Suffolk Hospital on Friday (November 3) to promote the UK's second Loud Tie Day which is being organised by the Beating Bowel Cancer charity.

One will be held in the staff canteen and the other inside the hospital's main entrance. They will include information about bowel cancer and give details about how staff and members of the public can support Loud Tie Day when men and boys are being asked to wear weird and wonderful ties and women and girls wild and terrible scarves or ties in exchange for making donations of £l or more.

The displays have been organised by Nurse Endoscopist Jo Godden and Colorectal Nurse Specialist Maggie Harold who have also been given permission by West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust managers to fine staff who are not wearing loud ties on Friday. Every penny donated will go to Beating Bowel Cancer who will ensure that it is spent on local services.

Mrs Godden, whose mother Ruth Readhead has made 22 flamboyant ties to be sold at the hospital on the day, said: "The twin aims of Loud Tie Day are to increase public awareness of bowel cancer and to raise money for diagnostic clinics around the country.

"Bowel cancer is the second biggest cancer killer - it kills nearly 50% more people than breast cancer. Of the 30,000 people who are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year, 18,000 will die but if it is caught in its early stages, it is one of the most curable of cancers."

Within the past six months, a total of 200 patients at West Suffolk Hospital have had surgery for bowel cancer.

Beating Bowel Cancer is the registered charity Lynn Faulds Wood helped to set up to campaign for better awareness, education, diagnosis and treatment.

The former Watchdog presenter, who has recovered from bowel cancer diagnosed eight years ago when she was 41, was told by her GP that her rectal bleeding was "probably piles". It was almost a year before she was correctly diagnosed.

Bowel cancer affects both men and women, mainly older people over the age of 60. However, there are over 6,000 cases a year under 60 which included BBC sports presenter Helen Rollason and former England soccer captain Bobby Moore.

The Government has made a priority of tackling bowel cancer and Mrs Harold, who was appointed in November 1999, was the first Colorectal Nurse Specialist at West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust.

When Prince Charles launched Loud Tie Day earlier this month he called on the public to lose their inhibitions about discussing the disease.

"Everyone, I suspect, knows somebody who has had bowel cancer, yet there is a real reluctance to talk about bowels and bottoms in this country," he said.

Members of the public wanting to support Loud Tie Day can make credit card donations by phoning the Loud Tie Hotline on 0181 892 0171 or by sending cheques or postal orders made payable to the Loud Tie Appeal to: Beating Bowel Cancer, PO Box 360, Twickenham TW1 1UN.