 We all recognise this, right? We've experienced it before. But imagine it was a daily occurrence. Imagine that you had been diagnosed with rectal cancer. So you had a surgery that removed that part of your bowel and then joined the healthy ends back together. After about a year you start to feel like you've recovered. You're almost back to your normal self again. But there's one major problem. You're still tied to the toilet. You're afraid to go to new places because you won't know where the bathrooms are. I'm describing the Lower Interior Reception Syndrome, or LARS, which is named after the surgery used to treat rectal cancer. I work in this field and I see these patients and it's surprising how common this problem is. In fact, I found that 68% of Aucklanders who have had this surgery suffer from this problem. So I was surprised when I couldn't find an accepted definition. When I reviewed the literature, I found over 30 symptoms and 18 different measurement tools had been used to report rectal cancer outcomes. The problem with this is that without standardisation and the way we identify LARS, we can't go on to investigate the condition further. So when I see a patient before their surgery, I warn them, your bowel function will change. But I can't tell you how. How long it will last for or how likely it is to happen to you. So I set out to produce an internationally accepted consensus definition of LARS. I convene three expert groups, patients who have had the surgery, surgeons and clinicians who also work in this field. The first part of the study involved three rounds of an online survey where participants were asked to rank items on a scale that are most important to essential for the definition of LARS. 325 participants from 11 countries enrolled in the study and we've just closed round three with a whopping 99% response rate. So we have that list of items that are important for the definition and now we're going on to hold regional patient consultation meetings and then a final consensus meeting with representatives from each of those expert fields. Working in this area, I see these patients. I see how detrimental this is to both them and to their whānau. So I'm humbled to work with this fantastic group of people towards developing a definition. If we can standardise the way we identify and measure LARS, then we can go on to investigate the causes and hopefully potential treatment options. We can also give individual patients better information about what to expect after surgery. We can identify these patients that need further follow-up and generally improve quality of life outcomes for rectal cancer survivors. Thank you.