Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I met with Bowel Cancer Australia advocates Mehroz Afzal, Seemab Awan, Jessica Kidd and James Barr. Mehroz and Seemab sadly lost their sister, Afroz Awan, in January 2022, only three months after she was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer and only six months after giving birth to her baby boy. Afroz was young. She was a mechanical engineer, healthy and excited for her life with her family and her career. Sadly, she was taken away at the age of 33. Likewise, Jessica is a successful journalist with the ABC in Sydney. However, she too was diagnosed at a young age with bowel cancer and shared with me her story of survival.

All of these advocates shared with me these stories of being dismissed because they're said to be too young to have bowel cancer. Bowel cancer is occurring in young people increasingly. We don't know why, but it is. Its symptoms should never be dismissed. Part of their advocacy campaign is about ensuring that individuals and medical professionals don't maintain the mistaken belief that young Australians have low to no risk of bowel cancer. They are at risk. Any symptoms need to be investigated. I'm very thankful to Bowel Cancer Australia and their wonderful advocates for increasing awareness in our parliament throughout the week. I'm proud of the work that our federal Albanese government has done for this issue, which includes investing almost $40 million in bowel cancer screening, as well as lowering the age for free screening from 50 to 45. By working together, I hope that our government can enact change to improve outcomes.

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