Some people think television is bad for you - but in one Brightlingsea woman's case, it just might have saved her life.

Grandmother Lilian MacGregor is joining the campaign to raise awareness about bowel cancer following her diagnosis and subsequent recovery from the disease nearly two years ago.

After reading about colorectal nurse Anna Wordley's drive to make people less embarrassed about the condition following her mother's death at 40, Mrs MacGregor has decided to speak out about her own fight against the illness.

The 59-year-old carer, of New Street, was spurred into visiting her doctor in April 1999 after watching an item on a breakfast television programme by presenter Lyn Faulds-Wood, who battled against the disease herself.

"I listened to everything she said and all of the symptoms she was talking about, I had. I rang her helpline and realise that I probably had the disease.

"I went straight to the doctor and he referred me straight away to the hospital."

"I just felt completely numb at the time but then I just knew I would not let it get the better of me.

"It is so important that people talk about the condition more because that is exactly how I was alerted to the problem I had."

Mrs MacGregor said she was lucky to have detected the problem early enough for it not to have spread to other parts of her body.

Quick action is something that nurse Anna Wordley, a specialist nurse in the care of bowel cancer patients, is promoting during April, which is National Bowel Cancer Month.

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