A MOUNT Gambier surgeon has made a heartfelt plea for regional residents to have regular bowel tests and seek medical advice to prevent cancer deaths.
Matthais Wichmann – who is a resident surgeon at Mount Gambier Hospital – has spoken out ahead of this Tuesday’s bowel cancer community information forum at the city hall.
The forum follows the highly successful renal health community meeting.
The forums are being spearheaded by the rejuvenated Mount Gambier and Districts Health Advisory Council (HAC), which is fostering community connectivity with the public health facility.
Mr Wichmann – who is an associate professor – performs dozens of bowel surgeries and hundreds of colonoscopy procedures at the Mount Gambier Hospital each year.
“The problem is we need people to get diagnosed,” he said.
“If the disease is outside of the bowel and it has spread, we know most people will be dead within five years.”
Statistics show Australia and New Zealand had the highest incidence of bowel cancer across the world and Mount Gambier is not immune to these figures.
“While everybody should not be running around worrying they might have bowel cancer one day, people must be aware,” Mr Wichmann said.
Alarmingly, he said only 30pc of men and 40pc of women who received their free government bowel screening test in the mail returned it.
“Awareness is so important. If we can diagnosis it early, we can save a lot of lives. So if you have a test gathering dust on your shelf, return it,” the resident surgeon said.
Importantly, he said polyps could be detected even before they became cancerous and life-threatening.
He said it was vital people were vigilant regarding their bodies and to seek medical advice if something did not feel right.
“Often changes can be subtle and often when you talk with patients they say ‘oh, there was this thing and I was not quite sure what it was and now it all makes sense’,” Mr Wichmann said.
He said people should raise the “alarm bells” much earlier if they start losing their appetite, feel tired or have other symptoms.
“We want to raise awareness and reduce the fear of having a colonoscopy,” said Mr Wichmann, who revealed he performed up to 400 of these exploratory procedures each year.
“Colonoscopies help to detect cancer early, but we are still seeing people with very advanced bowel cancer,” he said.
“People should not be afraid to go to the GP. They go for much less important things because many people are reluctant to talk about their bowels because they think it is embarrassing.”
While bowel cancer was most prevalent over the age of 50, he warned the cancer also struck younger people.
Risk factors include obesity, diabetes, smoking and a poor diet, particularly consumption of processed foods.
While scientists are yet to pinpoint the link between bowel cancer and red meat, he said the consumption of high amounts of red meat was a factor.
Genetics and age also play a factor in some people developing cancer.
“We do not know why this is occurring, but we know nations that eat a lot of red meat – mainly beef – have a high incidence,” he said.
Mr Wichmann said he hoped the forum would spread the message to the wider Mount Gambier community.
He praised the initiatives being rolled out by the health advisory council, including presiding member Maureen Klintberg.
“This has been a game-changer for us. It has been a long time waiting to have the community interested in the hospital. We want the hospital to be for the people of Mount Gambier,” he said.
“Not just something the government has put here that if you are absolutely desperate, you might go. We want to be part of the community.”
He said the connectivity with the community was growing given plans were under way for a second charity ball.
Mr Wichmann said many people did not know surgeons lived in Mount Gambier and were part of the community and were not just “fly-in” medical personnel.
“I have now been here for 13 years – I love living in Mount Gambier.”
Other guest speakers at the free forum will include surgeon Timothy McCullough, who will canvass surgical treatment options.
Medical oncology senior consultant Dr Dagmara Poprawski will touch on chemotherapy for bowel cancer.
Mount Gambier West Rotary Club’s Matthew Dixon will also give a presentation on the bowel cancer screening.
The event will start at 6.30pm and the HAC encourages as many people as possible to attend.
