Whether you’re a man or
woman, young or old, it’s important for you to get to know your body (including
the parts of it that are rarely spoken about) because cancer doesn’t
discriminate in terms of where it hits. We all need to come together and scrap
the shame and stigma around below-the-belt cancers and talk about them more
openly and help others to communicatively do the same.
To mark June as being bowel
cancer awareness month in Australia, I’d like to thank the following celebrities:
Erin Molan, Gina Liano, George Calombaris and Ita Buttrose for lending their
name to help us better understand this disease.
In honour of those lost to
the disease, we love and miss you very much but wholeheartedly know you’re in a
better place and are blessed. We know that we can still talk to you and connect
with you through our prayers, pictures and our fondest memories of you.
In honour of those in remission
from it, we celebrate with you and ask that you pay it forward and help others
by becoming pre-and-post cancer support companions; by sharing your experiences
with it and all the wisdom that you’ve learnt throughout your journey.
In honour of those newly
diagnosed with the disease, we promise to do everything in our power to help you
through this and eradicate the stigma attached to all the below-the-belt cancers.
Don’t let cancer shame you of loving your body. One’s cancer journey can feel
so overwhelming when the bad days of treatment kick in, so it’s good to think
of who else you’re fighting to survive for and/or always give yourself
something that you wholeheartedly feel is worthwhile to look forward to and draw
motivational strength from. Always remember that you’re stronger than you
think, and know that something as menacing as cancer doesn’t have the mental
power to control, beat and/or consume you, unless you let it.
If you have a family
history of bowel cancer, then you should start getting tested when you reach the
age of 40 or earlier. If not, then you should start getting tested at the age
of 50 by asking your doctor for the bowel-screening test kit as soon as
possible, because early detection can and will save lives.
At your discretion, please
give generously to Bowel Cancer Australia this June on https://www.bowelcanceraustralia.org/donate .
