Published on 22 April 2022
Merseyside clinicians helped CMCA create videos warning South Asian communities of the signs of bowel cancer, which are now being promoted in its awareness month.
The Alliance has published the videos – in Bengali, Hindi, Tamil and Punjabi – on its YouTube channel and on social media.
The videos outline what people to should look out for as some of the symptoms described can be a sign of cancer. These symptoms are:
- Bleeding from your bottom and/or blood in your poo.
- A persistent and unexplained change in bowel habit.
- Unexplained weight loss.
- Extreme tiredness for no obvious reason.
- A pain or lump in your tummy.
One of the videos – in Tamil and voice by Tamil speaker and Lead Nurse Mary Alexander, who works at the Royal Liverpool Hospital – has had 46,000 views, and has been viewed as far away as Sri Lanka.
CMCA Communications Manager Paul Ogden said: “We are extremely grateful to these local clinicians who gave up their valuable time to help is with these videos.
“The messages are important and it is vital that they are heard by all sections of our community so that people can recognise when they need to get themselves checked out so that any cancer is found early, when it is easier and more successfully treated.
“We were really pleased that Mary’s video in Tamil should get so many views. It has obviously gone viral in the Tamil community in the UK and overseas. Mary is really proud that she has been able to pass on this vital information in this way.”
Other CMCA videos produced at the same time in English and other languages, promoting the FIT test, have been used in a campaign this month by Thames Valley Cancer Alliance. The test can give an indication of the early onset of bowel cancer.
See Mary’s video below - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8moWaR8tY5U - and you can see the other videos on our YouTube channel here.