40tude is an innovative and successful charity championing the early detection of colon, or bowel, cancer.

The message it wants people to hear is a stark one. If you are a non-smoker in the UK, male or female, colon cancer is the most likely cancer to kill you. It does not have to be that way.

Detected early, the survival rate is more than 90 per cent.

Yet colon cancer rates are rising in younger people, which is why regular testing from your mid-40s onwards is so important.

Alongside raising awareness of how treatable this cancer is when caught in time, 40tude funds vital research.

To date the charity has raised more than £2.7 million and is now the lead or exclusive financial supporter of a number of ground-breaking research projects at St Mark’s, the National Bowel Hospital, working in collaboration with many other respected institutions.

Programmes made possible by 40tude’s funding include:

  • The National Lynch Registry – A system for identifying and monitoring those with Lynch Syndrome, a condition which significantly increases the risk of developing colon and other cancers.
  • The National CTC Academy – A pioneering programme improving the quality and availability of CT Colonography bowel screening across the NHS.
  • The ICAN Study – A novel study aiming to develop a non-invasive test to improve the early diagnosis of cancer in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients, who have a higher risk of developing colon cancer.
  • The Tom Smith Research Fellowship – A dedicated research post aiming to improve the current understanding of the genetics of hereditary colon cancer.
  • 40tude’s Half:Time Test – A campaign enabling more people to be tested earlier for this treatable disease, by means of a quantitative FIT (poo test), regularly from the age of 45.

The charity raises funds and builds awareness through a programme of unusual physical challenges and events throughout the year.

More information is available at www.40tude.org.uk.

Speaking about how Rotherham Taylor supports the charity, the team at 40tude said: “We are grateful to Chloe Greenbank and her team at RT who have supported 40tude for many years with accountancy and audit services, assisting the charity with the preparation of our annual financial statements.”

If you do one thing today, please put getting tested for colon cancer at the top of your list. It might save your life.