The event was centred around raising awareness of bowl cancer, with a particular focus throughout the day on how exercise and diet can be targeted as preventative measures.
‘Having a healthier diet and a healthier lifestyle are the main things that we try to promote at Bowel Cancer Guernsey,’ said Dr Rachel Heath, one of the charity’s directors.
‘Sadly, we’re seeing a rise in bowel cancers in younger people. We don’t have all the answers. It’s a multifactorial disease. But it may well be to do with our ultra-processed food diets and not having enough fibre, and we have a much more sedentary lifestyle than we used to.’
Much of the day’s events focused on promoting a healthier diet and more active lifestyle, with stalls showcasing local exercise groups and producers of food rich in fibre present throughout the day, alongside yoga sessions, dance classes and cooking demonstrations.
Guernsey Mind was also present with a stall to remind attendees that looking after your mental health can be just as important as your physical when feeling unwell.
‘Our physical health and our mental health are so intrinsically linked. So when people are poorly physically, it can really bring them down mentally too,’ said communications and events lead at the charity Amanda Hibbs.
‘You never know how you’re going to react sometimes when you get this bad news. So, we want people to know that we’re there to support if needed.’
Dr Heath was hoping people left just as informed after interacting with her own display, a large inflatable bowel that people could walk through to see what a healthy colon looks like, compared to one that would cause concern.
‘Walking through, you’re shown what a nice, normal, healthy bowel looks like first, and then we have an inflamed bowel, where you have a little ulcer, an indentation in your colon. So, not necessarily cancerous. Then you’ve got some little polyps in the bowel, and that might need more surveillance. Then you move to intramural bowel cancers,’ said Dr Heath.
She was keen to stress that all health concerns shown in the inflatable bowel, including the cancers, would be removable if caught early enough, and urged anyone experiencing any symptom to reach out to their GP.
‘If you have noticed blood in your stool, or changes in your bowel habit, or perhaps you’ve noticed you’re more tired as a symptom, or you’re losing weight. Things like that, it’s so important to go to see your GP, and we can help you to get diagnosed earlier.’
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