Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, with around 42,900 people diagnosed with the condition each year.
It is a general term for cancer that begins in the large bowel but can also be called colon or rectal cancer. While it typically affects older people, with almost nine out of 10 people who are diagnosed with bowel cancer aged 60 or over, it can develop before that.
This comes after 47-year-old Merlin Griffiths, the bartender on Channel 4's First Dates, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in September 2021. Merlin has recently admitted that he ignored some of the early signs, leading to his stage three diagnosis.
