Bowel Cancer Australia’s Dry July team is raising funds to expand the charity’s specialist Bowel Care Nurse program.

The 100% community funded program enables people with bowel cancer to receive dedicated in-person clinical, psychosocial and emotional support from a specialist Bowel Care Nurse in the place where they are receiving treatment. Improving equity of access to personalised care and tailored support and allowing more people to access coordinated care closer to home.

An in-person specialist Bowel Care Nurse is a registered nurse who has specialist knowledge and experience caring for people with bowel cancer, serving as their main point of contact during and beyond cancer treatment, and supporting and communicating with them and their loved ones.

Making sure patients and their families understand their options and receive the support they need – from that initial point of diagnosis all the way through their treatment pathway.

Specialist Bowel Care Nurses provide a single point of contact for people with bowel cancer, assisting with continuity of care from diagnosis, helping to improve bowel cancer outcomes by identifying and bridging gaps in the patient journey and enabling patients to take a more active role in their bowel care treatment, and assisting with care coordination, while providing advice, education, support, and direct patient care.

Despite being the third most diagnosed cancer, bowel cancer patients don’t receive the same level of support as other common cancers.

Every bowel cancer patient deserves to have access to a specialist Bowel Care Nurse.