The first time I met Jola Gore-Booth and Julia Kennedy from EuropaColon in Brussels in 2008, they quizzed me closely about my medical background to see if I needed to be screened for colon (bowel) cancer. They say people find it embarrassing to talk about bottoms – but don’t waste a moment in bringing this into the conversation.

When you meet these two women who are passionate about saving lives from this devastating disease, the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Europe, they are likely to ask you these very personal questions too. But believe me, they only have your best interests at heart.

It is a great pleasure to be working with them to promote their 2nd Colorectal Cancer Patient Conference 2013 on 5-6 July in Barcelona. Thanks to generous sponsorship, registration is free and bursaries are available to pay towards hotel and flights, including the European Commission who is committed to meeting its health initiative to reduce cancer incidence in Europe by 15% by 2020. There is also an early bird offer for hotel bookings made by 31 May.

Entitled Your Life, Your Responsibility, the conference aims to empower patients to take responsibility for their own treatment pathways and to know their rights as patients. Speakers include Romanian MEP Petru Luhan, blessed with film star looks, who shares Jola and Julia’s passion to reduce colon cancer deaths. He is a fantastic advocate, and explains here why he supports EuropaColon.

“Approximately 150,000 EU citizens die from colorectal cancer every year, which makes it the second most lethal cancer in the EU, with figures projected to increase even further due to the ageing population and increasingly unhealthy lifestyles. But not only is colon cancer often beatable when detected and treated in its early stages, but it can be prevented altogether when polyps are removed before they develop into cancer. In short, this is a cancer we can do something about. The figures speak for themselves, it’s high time we do something about it. As for EuropaColon, it is one of the best collaboration I had so far with an NGO, very committed people with whom I achieved a lot of concrete results.

“As far as I know, from the analysis of the EUROCARE within Europe, 5-year survival rates for colon cancer are lower in the UK, Denmark, and Eastern European countries compared with the European average of about 50%. Lower survival in the UK is due to later stage at presentation and diagnosis rather than inferior treatment for a similar stage. My hope is that the situation in all EU Member States will improve.

“The conference provides a most welcome opportunity to keep the momentum on action at all levels to fight colorectal cancer. Together with my colleague Pavel Poc, we will try to put on the agenda of the plenary of the European Parliament the topic of colorectal cancer. The feed-back of the most important figures in the field would be most useful to us. The Parliament should have a leading role and the ideas of the patients’ organizations are most useful for us. I do hope to have fruitful discussions at the conference in Barcelona.”

Colorectal cancer is preventable in many cases and highly treatable if diagnosed early. Please read here to learn about the symptoms, and here is the link to register for free.

I hope to see you in Barcelona!