Mal told ARN\u2019s Adam and Jennie<\/a>.<\/p>\nArticle continues after this ad<\/p>\n
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Bowel cancer is the second deadliest and fourth most common cancer in South Australia. In 2021, it accounted for 9.4 per cent of male cancers and 11.1 per cent of female cancers, with a five-year survival rate of 72 per cent. While it is more common in older people, cases are rising among younger Australians. Free screening kits are available for people aged 45 to 74 through the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program.<\/p>\n
Mal said while he could intuitively tell something was wrong, he tried to explain away his symptoms, eventually seeking medical advice when they didn\u2019t improve. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have a bodily change for no apparent reason, or even for an apparent reason, go and talk to your GP\u2026 talk to somebody, talk to the Cancer Council of SA,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are 15,500 Australians diagnosed each year\u2026 and about 5,000 die from it, but we can reduce those numbers with early intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mal is encouraging people to take symptoms seriously and make use of screening tools, including at-home bowel test kits, which can help detect the disease early when treatment is more effective.<\/p>\n
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He has reduced his hours at the Strath Neighbourhood Centre during treatment, with fatigue an ongoing challenge, but says the support from his partner, colleagues and the wider community has been significant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a lot of help out there\u2026 a lot of very caring people,\u201d he said. \u201cThe biggest challenge for me was actually acknowledging the amount of support that I have.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Mal initially kept his diagnosis private, he felt a responsibility to speak out given his role in the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought\u2026 with the position I hold and the profile I have, it would be wrong not to share this message about early intervention,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mal is now focused on completing treatment and continuing his advocacy, encouraging others to act quickly if something doesn\u2019t feel right, and to be open with loved ones.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s important to consider the impact the diagnosis may have on family members. If you don\u2019t tell them and they ultimately find out, they may feel neglected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Support is available through Cancer Council SA\u2019s Information and Support Service on 13 11 20.<\/p>\n
Hear Mal\u2019s chat with Adam & Jennie via SoundCloud<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A well-known community figure in Strathalbyn is using his personal health battle to encourage others to act early…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-564892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}