Tell Your GP Instead
Our campaign, Tell Your GP Instead, is encouraging people experiencing key symptoms of possible bowel cancer to contact their GP to ask for an at-home test.
If you notice you have any symptoms of bowel cancer, you should contact your GP and ask for an at-home test. It could be nothing to worry about but it’s worth making sure. Bowel cancer is more treatable when found early.
About the campaign
This campaign is about more than just raising awareness. It’s about changing behaviour.
Research shows that some people wait up to six months to contact their GP if they are experiencing red flag symptoms, such as blood in poo. This is contributing to later diagnosis of bowel cancer when it’s less treatable. We need to change that.
Our campaign is running until early 2025, reaching audiences via newspapers, radio, out of home sites (e.g. bus stops) and digital advertising. We hope that by getting our message into targeted communities, we’ll increase the number of people diagnosed at an earlier stage when bowel cancer is easier to treat.
We’re so grateful to our supporters and the wider bowel cancer community for the support and donations that have made this possible.
Developing the right message
We’ve co-created our campaign in collaboration with a wide range of people to make it as effective as possible.
- We’ve worked with behaviour change experts to identify the barriers people face - like embarrassment and fear or fatalism about their health – and give them everyday language to use when speaking to a doctor
- We’ve worked with media strategists to identify the best places to reach these audiences using press, radio, out of home sites and digital advertising
- We’ve worked with bowel cancer patients, people from the target groups and diversity specialists to make sure we get the words and images right, creating visuals that resonate with the people we most need to reach
How can you get involved?
If you'd like to get involved, check out our toolkit of shareable resources by clicking below.
