Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa aims to get Kiwis to put their health first by encouraging them to talk about number twos.
The ‘Give a crap’ video campaign, which features TV personality Nigel Latta, whose father died from bowel cancer, is designed to make New Zealanders feel more comfortable about broaching the awkward subject of bowel movements in the hope that this will lead to early diagnosis of the disease.
According to the non-profit organisation, the standard bowel cancer survival rate in OECD countries is 75 percent, but in New Zealand only 55 percent of sufferers survive for five years beyond diagnosis.
This, Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa argues, is largely attributable to the fact that people feel too ashamed to talk about their symptoms, often leading to the disease going undetected until it’s too late.
Further exacerbating this is the fact that 3,000 Kiwis are diagnosed with the disease every year, and it claims more lives than breast and prostate cancer combined.
In an effort to help Kiwis overcome this disease, the organisation has released a YouTube video that asks Kiwis to break the poo silence and open up about what goes plop in the toilet.
“All we ask is that you help us encourage conversation around this issue by sharing the video, whether it is on Facebook or Twitter, email or text up until Christmas,” says a release from Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa.
