Bowel Cancer - Lets Beat Bowel Cancer

In 2008, much-loved Melbourne-based entertainment and TV personality Geoff Coxy Cox (formerly a drummer in the Little River Band) was diagnosed with bowel cancer. Coxy went on to receive treatment at Melbournes Cabrini Hospital, having a tumour the size of tennis ball removed from his colon, before undergoing a course of chemotherapy that was completed in May 2009.

He has since been given the all clear by doctors, and being the big-hearted man that he is, Coxy has now stepped forward to promote the importance of screening for the early signs of bowel cancer. He is especially keen to emphasise the existence of a form of screening called a Faecal Occult Blood (FOB) Test because it is a simple, non-invasive test that can be completed in privacy at home, without any discomfort.




Bowel cancer is
• Is the most common internal cancer in Australian men & women
• Claims the lives of around 5,000 Australians every year (the equivalent of one death every two hours)
• Bowel cancer can develop with few, if any, early warning signs.
• Bowel cancer is one of only two preventable cancers (the other being cervical cancer) because if detected early, it can be treated (with a success rate of 90%)
• The second leading cause of cancer related deaths in Australia after lung cancer.

The good news is that if detected and treated at an early stage* it can usually be prevented. Currently fewer than 40% of bowel cancers are detected early^. Clinical trials have shown that population screening for bowel cancer, using Faecal Occult Blood (FOB) Tests can reduce deaths from this disease.

An initiative of Cabrini Health, Let's Beat Bowel Cancer is a not-for-profit, community awareness program dedicated to saving lives through improved bowel cancer research, education and prevention.

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• Bowel
• Cancer
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• 'Coxy'
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