Bowel Cancer UK also notes that other symptoms include being extremely tired and developing a lump in your abdomen.
Unfortunately, we don’t know the exact cause of bowel cancer, but as with most other diseases, there are risk factors that increase or decrease your chances of developing bowel cancer.
Are you at risk?
The biggest risk factor is age, more than 90 percent of bowel cancer develop in the over-50s and nearly 60 percent of cases develop in those 70 and above.
This doesn’t, however, mean the young are immune. The Radio 1 Presenter Adele Roberts recently returned to broadcasting after recovering from bowel cancer earlier this year.
The 42-year-old credited the NHS for saving her life and has bravely used her experience to raise awareness of the condition and its symptoms.