A cheeky new campaign aims to save lives by using social media to raise awareness of the symptoms of bowel cancer, the UK’s second biggest cancer killer.

80 per cent of the online population use social media to keep in touch with friends and family2 and now social networking sites are being used to save lives by spreading a ‘Cheeky Warning’ from national charity Beating Bowel Cancer.

Bowel cancer will affect 1 in 18 of us, 1 yet there is still an alarming lack of awareness of the disease, particularly amongst younger people. In the last decade the UK has seen incidence of bowel cancer increase by a staggering 120 per cent amongst the under 30s.3 However, more than ¾ of people under the age of 35 were not aware that bowel cancer was the second biggest cancer killer.4 Furthermore over half of those questioned were unable to name the high risk symptoms of the disease.5

Cheeky Warning is a new digital campaign launched by Beating Bowel Cancer that aims to raise awareness of the symptoms of bowel cancer among the 29 million people that use social networking sites each month.2

Cheeky Warning takes a light hearted approach to the serious task of raising awareness of bowel cancer. The campaign, which has been developed by digital agency Influential, will use animated banner adverts to grab the attention of social media users and a campaign film featuring bowel cancer patients who have beaten the disease. Each week Beating Bowel Cancer will give away prizes to fans and followers of the charity’s Facebook and Twitter pages who help the charity spread their Cheeky Warning to a wide audience.

Hilary Whittaker, Chief Executive of Beating Bowel Cancer says, “Cheeky Warning is a fun campaign with a very important message. Currently almost half of those diagnosed with bowel cancer will die from the disease, yet over 90 per cent of cases could be successfully treated if diagnosed early.1 Awareness of symptoms is therefore essential to save lives from bowel cancer through early diagnosis. I urge all social media users to spread the Cheeky Warning message to their friends and followers so that we can beat bowel cancer together.”

Cheeky Warning will run throughout April, which is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month. For more information about the campaign visit www.beatingbowelcancer.org.