For My Hayley xx

Today should be Sid Quorn's birthday. Sadly he passed away, leaving behind his lovely daughter, Hayley. Hayley is one of the funniest, kindest and most truest friends I have. Always ready to help anyone, always with something funny to say, always ready to put others before herself. Your dad would be really proud of you Hayley! I miss you brightening up my daily life!! Today's post is dedicated to the two of you xxx

Sadly poor Sid had cancer in a lot of places but Hayley did tell me that one place he had it was in the colon so today I'm going to explain the progress being made in the fight against colon (bowel) cancer.

Cancer of the bowel is the third most common cancer type in the UK, with more then 41,000 people diagnosed every day. It kills around 16,000 people per year in the UK. Thanks to advancements in research, half of those diagnosed with bowel cancer today will survive for at least ten years after the diagnosis. The work of CRUK has played a huge role in this.

Making a Difference:

So far CRUK has played a huge role in researching ways to prevent, diagnosis and treat bowel cancer:

*Faulty genes, including the APC gene, which are responsible for bowel cancers running in families have been discovered and this has also led to researchers finding the subtle genetic variations that increase the bowel cancer risk in the general population.

*There was a campaign for the introduction of a bowel screening programme in the UK which saves thousands of lives every year

*Major clinical trials have been funded to change the way those with advanced bowel cancer are treated.

*CRUK helped fund the EPIC, the largest ever study into diet and cancer. This discovered that a diet containing a high amount of red and processed meat, as well as high alcohol consumption, increases your bowel cancer risk. It also discovered that a diet containing lots of high fibre food and lots of physical activity can reduce your bowel cancer risk.

*CRUK helped develop and test many of the drugs used to treat bowel cancer including

-Oxaliplatin

-Irinotecan

-Capecitabine

-Raltitrexed

-Fluorouracil

*CRUK also helped fund the groundbreaking trial of an alternative bowel screening programme which is called a Bowel Scope. This could prevent a third of all bowel cancer cases.

Current Research into Bowel Cancer

Our donations to CRUK currently help fund a number of research projects into bowel cancer. There are currently around fourteen separate research studies into bowel cancer taking place in CRUK labs including:

*Dr Farhat Din is a Clinician Scientist with CRUK and hold a prestigious CRUK Fellowship which allows her to research how aspirin can reduce the risk of bowel cancer. This important work could lead to better prevention strategies in the future and will hopefully discover the best way to use aspirin to prevent bowel cancer. 

*Labs in Oxford, London, Edinburgh and Cambridge are currently tracking down the gene faults linked with bowel cancer. This will hopefully lead to a more personalised screening process and treatment.

*The Beatson Institute, Glasgow, is home to Dr Own Sansom who is currently tracking the changes that turn healthy bowel cells into cancerous ones. This important work will hopefully show us how the disease develops and how to treat it in the future.

*Prof Dion Morton is running a major clinical trial in Birmingham which is testing whether chemotherapy before surgery can shrink the tumour, making it easier to remove and reducing the risk of it coming back in the future.

*Christine Campbell is in Edinburgh researching how we can increase the amount of people having bowel screening, which has the potential to save lives by diagnosing bowel cancer in the early stages when it is more curable.

You can find out about even more research projects into bowel cancer at http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/science/research/who-and-what-we-fund/researchbycancertype/bowelresearch_new/

In celebration of Sid and Hayley I'll be making a little donation to one of these research projects. That means that donation will directly affect research into bowel cancer in Sid's memory. Hopefully this means his memory will help save someone else in the future. I'm not sure if I have ever mentioned that you can donate money to a specific research project, or a specific type of cancer, when donating to CRUK. All you have to do is visit the MyProjects page and pick the project you identify most with. http://myprojects.cancerresearchuk.org/projects/p/category/Bowel%20cancer

To read more of my bowel cancer related posts please visit 

Colonoscopy -http://pennysophia.blogspot.com/2013/04/bowel-cancer-awareness-month-colonoscopy.html

Bowel Cancer- http://pennysophia.blogspot.com/2012/02/bowel-cancer-uk.html

Thinking of you today my lovely Hayley, and really looking forward to seeing you next month!!! Lots of love xxxx

Cancer Research UK Kids and Teens Campaign

For those that don't know I'll explain why this campaign is so important to me. I've lost six relatives to cancer so far in my life. Sadly my cousin Georgie was one of them. He lost his mum when he was a baby and was then diagnosed with a very rare cancer himself on his second birthday. He was very very brave and he survived that first diagnosis. He grew into the most lovable, smiliest, most fun child in the world. He gave us all so much happiness. He was then diagnosed with osteosarcoma as a teenager and he once again showed bravery way beyond his years. Our hearts broke when he succumbed to his illness on April 25th 2011 aged just seventeen. Our hearts are still broken to this day as we still try to navigate life without his beautiful heart, his sense of fun, his love and his amazing nature. I will never ever recover from his death, there is a hole in my heart that will never heal. There is no way to describe watching someone you have loved from the moment they were born suffer in such a horrific way. The fact that he died on my birthday is just horrific - imagine the feeling of growing another year older on the same date someone you treated as a brother stopped living. The voluntary work is to ensure no one else has to lose someone the way we had to lose him.

Every day around 10 young people in the UK are diagnosed with cancer.  Despite being rare compared to cancer in adults, cancer is still the leading cause of death by disease in children, teens and young adults under the age of 24, and it has a devastating impact on youngsters and their families. Cancer Research UK have launched a new campaign to raise more money to research the cancers found in children, teenagers and young adults.

The cancers seen in children are usually very different to those seen in adults and “childhood” refers to any child aged between birth and fourteen years old.

There are twelve main types of childhood cancer:

*Leukaemia

*Soft Tissue Sarcomas

*Kidney Tumours

*Brain and Central Nervous System (CNS)

*Bone Tumours (Like the one Georgie had)

*Carcinomas and Melanomas

*Retinoblastomas

*Gonadal and Germ Cell Tumours

*Liver Tumours

*Sympathetic Nervous System Tumours

*Other and Unspecified Tumours

Childhood cancer is quite rare and makes up 5% of all cancers. Around 1,600 children in the UK are diagnosed with cancer every year, which roughly works out at thirty one children per week. Around one in every five hundred children in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer.

The UK’s childhood cancer rates are amongst the lowest in Europe, with Northen Europe having the highest incidence rate.

Leukeamia is the most common childhood cancer. Two thirds of all childhood cancers are  leukeamia, brain and CNS tumours and lymphomas.

Surviving Childhood Cancer:

More children then ever are surviving cancer. The survival rate has doubled since the 1960’s and at least 5,600 MORE children now survive for more then five years after diagnosis.

Around 33,000 people in the UK have survived a type of childhood cancer and almost three quarters of children with cancer can now be cured of the disease.

For every ten childhood cancer sufferers – eight will now survive for more then five years after their diagnosis:

*Nearly all children diagnosed with retinoblastoma are cured.

*Survival rates for Hepatoblastoma have doubled since the 1960’s.

*Around six out of ten children diagnosed with neuroblastoma are cured.

*Eight out of ten children with kidney cancer survive the disease.

*Rhabdomyosarcoma survival rates have doubled since the 1970’s.

Childhood Cancer Deaths:

Cancer is the UK’s leading cause of death (from disease) in children aged up to fourteen. A fifth of all childhood deaths are down to cancer.

Brain and CNS tumours are the most common fatal type of childhood cancer.

Around two hundred and fifty children die from cancer every year in the UK.

Childhood cancer death rates have halved since the 1960’s.

Causes of Childhood Cancer:

We don’t know much about what causes childhood cancers but there are several things we do know:

*Rare genetic syndromes such as Li-Fraumeni Syndrome (what Georgie had) can greatly increase a child’s risk of developing cancer.

*Children with Down ’s syndrome have a greater risk of developing leukaemia.

*2/5 retinoblastomas are linked to a faulty gene that has been inherited.

*Children that have had radiotherapy or chemotherapy in the past are at greater risk of developing a second cancer (As Georgie did)

If you would like to learn more about this campaign, childhood cancer, or would like to donate to the campaign, please visit http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/support-us/donate/kidsandteens