Interview with Ruth Cowin, mother of breast cancer survivor Daniel Cowin

Transcript

00:00Well my son Daniel was 40 when he died of bowel cancer. He was formerly healthy,

00:09didn't smoke, ate properly, loved cooking his own food. So we're at a loss to why he would even

00:17have got bowel cancer in the first place. But my message is really that you're never too young to

00:24get it. So it's to get young ones as well as everybody, if they're aware of any symptoms,

00:32just get yourself to your GP straight away and get bowel cancer ruled out because it could be lots

00:38of lesser things but you just get that ruled out because with Daniel, because he'd always been

00:44healthy and we didn't have any family history of anything, he just thought it would go away and

00:51get better because things always had done but just don't hang about really, just don't get it ruled

00:57out. So these symptoms can be so subtle so then you kind of get tired and he was never a tired person.

01:08You know, so something wasn't right but it's just those subtle signs that, you know, if you notice

01:16them now with this awareness campaign, just put a little thought on just getting to the doctor

01:23straight away, anything that's unusual. I think at the moment it's just a factor of whatever age,

01:30if you see any of those symptoms, just go get it checked out. That's the message that I'm here to

01:37send really that don't hang around. Yeah, so he was intelligent, lovely, kind, you know, good laugh.

01:46It's got an amazing sister, amazing wife, amazing friends. So everybody's, you know,

01:54it's just a big hole in our lives that we can't feel ever again. But also, I think I would probably

02:01say to employers as well, those employers are absolutely wonderful. So employers, that you're a

02:09part of things as people, you know, have their illnesses or whatever, is to just please be mindful

02:16and, you know, if you can help in any way and give them support, that's so important.

02:21I just kind of noticed that I couldn't see anything over here to do with bowel cancer,

02:35particularly apart from obviously the screening, which is important. But for younger ones,

02:40I couldn't see anything that would draw their attention to actually instigating them to go

02:45to the GP and little signs. So I actively went round places doing the same thing, giving posters out

02:56and asking them to put in the toilet door. So then I approached public health and said,

03:04please, can you help me? Because there doesn't seem to be a lot out here, the younger ones,

03:09particularly for everybody. And they just took it all on board and it's been really great. So

03:16we're really grateful for that. So there's posters and leaflets and GPs and pharmacies as well.

03:24But there's lights around the island on Thursday, Friday, so everybody's gone over and above of

03:32being supportive. So Tower of Refuge and City Hall and legislative buildings and Ramsey Swingbridge,

03:38they've all been great. So it's just a couple of days to help awareness for Daniel and bowel cancer.