You Track Your Steps. But Do You Check Before You Flush?
As a women’s health writer, my mission has always been simple: to start the conversations we’re too often too polite or embarrassed to have. With it being Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, there has never been a more important time to discuss what we usually avoid. Consider this your judgment-free zone, your safe space, your metaphorical bathroom with the door locked. We’re happy to swap skincare tips or hormone hacks, but talking about our poo still clears a room faster than a fire alarm.
Yet silence can be dangerous - especially when it stops us from understanding what’s normal for our own bodies. In the UK, bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer, with around 46,000 new cases every year . And while that sounds alarming, here’s the part we don’t talk about enough: it’s also one of the most treatable. When caught early, more than 9 in 10 people survive . The problem? Too many of us don’t know what to look for, or feel too embarrassed to speak up when something changes.
Bowel Cancer Awareness efforts shine a light on the importance of early detection. There has never been a better time to break the taboo. Understanding your body, even your bowel movements, is not crude. It’s crucial. Leading the charge is WE ARE REGULAR. Their #CheckYourPoo campaign aims to break stigma and encourage more open, potentially life-saving conversations around gut health.
So settle in - over the next few minutes, we’re making poo polite conversation.
The Conversation We’ve Been Avoiding
To break the taboo wide open, I spoke with WE ARE REGULAR founders Holly Brooke and Joely Walker Sanderson, the duo spearheading the movement to change how we see,speak about, and understand our bowel movements. The first port of call in their #CheckYourPoo campaign? Dismantling the misconceptions. Everything we thought we knew, or politely tried not to think about, is up for reassessment as they set out to demystify what’s truly “normal.” Their mission is simple yet powerful: through education and open conversation, lives can be saved.
So why, in a wellness-obsessed world, does talking about poo remain so uncomfortable? “The wellness space has become highly aestheticised,” Joely explains. “It’s green juices and gua sha, but poo doesn’t exactly photograph well. It doesn’t have a flatlay, so it gets left out, even though it’s one of the clearest windows into our health.” Holly agrees, noting that shame begins in childhood and lingers into adulthood. “We’re conditioned early to find it embarrassing, and that conditioning doesn’t disappear just because we care about our wellbeing.”
At the heart of the campaign is a mission to redefine what we think of as “normal.” Holly challenges the term outright, recalling how she was once told her gut was healthy despite going to the toilet only once every 10 days. Instead, she emphasises that any shift in frequency, consistency, or colour deserves medical attention. Joely adds that another dangerous misconception is that bowel cancer only affects older people, an assumption increasingly at odds with rising diagnoses in younger adults.
Registered Nutritionist and Well Edit Editor, Eleanor would say that if you're not going to the bathroom everyday for a 'good' bowel movement, you're constipated. This is something the guidelines don't reflect.
Together, these insights highlight a vital truth: understanding your normal could be the key to saving your life.
What to Look For: Understanding the Signs
Now, this is where the conversation shifts from breaking down misconceptions, to understanding what’s truly happening in the body day-to-day and what your “normal” looks like. Who’d have thought it: being in tune with your body is actually one of the most effective ways to spot when something isn’t quite right.
One of the biggest challenges with bowel cancer is that symptoms can be subtle, easy to dismiss, explain away, or simply hope will pass. But according to Dr Kasim Usmani, a London-based GP, it’s not dramatic changes that matter most, but persistent ones.
“The key thing I tell patients to look out for is changes that stick around,” he explains. This may include a shift in your usual bowel habits, going more frequently, experiencing looser stools or constipation, as well as blood in your stool, unexplained weight loss, or ongoing abdominal discomfort such as cramping or bloating.
Less obvious symptoms can be just as important. Ongoing fatigue, for example, may be linked to slow, unnoticed blood loss in the bowel, leading to anaemia. Even a subtle feeling of not fully emptying the bowels can be a sign worth investigating.
His advice is loud and clear: if something doesn’t feel right for more than a few weeks, don’t ignore it. You know your body best - trust it.
What Can I Be Doing to Support My Gut Health?
Amongst all this poo talk, we can’t forget the gut, the epicentre of where it all starts. Because what shows up in the toilet is ultimately a reflection of what’s happening inside, shaped by the small, consistent habits we practise every day. Think of this as your inside scoop (yes, we’re really getting into the guts of it), with Dr Kasim, breaking down the everyday habits that quietly shape your long-term health.
First stop: Fibre
“Undoubtedly, one of the biggest players. It helps move waste through the bowel more efficiently, which means the lining of the gut is exposed to potentially harmful substances for a shorter time. It also feeds the “good” gut bacteria, which produce compounds that help protect the bowel lining.”
Regular movement
“Something as simple as walking supports this process, too. A more active gut means less stagnation, better digestion and overall a healthier environment in the bowel.”
Diet
“Matters in a slightly different way. Diets high in processed and red meats have been linked to a higher risk of bowel cancer; on the flip side, plant-rich diets seem to have a protective effect.”
Weight
“A factor that also plays a role. Carrying excess weight is associated with higher levels of Inflammation and hormonal changes in the body - both of which can increase cancer risk over time.”
While no single habit is a guarantee, these small, consistent choices stack up. You’re essentially creating a healthier gut environment, reducing irritation and inflammation and lowering long-term risk.
WE ARE REGULAR and the #CheckYourPoo Challenge
Now, for a more frank conversation. If a 10-step skincare routine can become second nature, why not a two-second health check? That’s the thinking behind WE ARE REGULAR’s #CheckYourPoo challenge; a habit-forming, stigma-busting nudge to pay attention to something we’ve long been conditioned to ignore.
“It sounds confronting,” Holly admits, “but it genuinely isn’t once you get into the habit. It’s about taking a moment to notice colour, consistency, frequency, and looking, rather than flushing and forgetting.” In other words, a quick scan of the pan before you scroll.
To make things feel less guesswork, Joely points to the Bristol Stool Chart, a clinical but surprisingly user-friendly guide. “Types three and four are considered ideal,” she explains, while anything consistently outside of that range is worth noting.
My take on this challenge is that it’s education in its simplest form: learn the signs and look before you flush. At its core, it’s really about transforming a conversation long hidden behind embarrassment into something as routine as discussing skincare or fitness. Because, as we’ve seen across the wellness world, normality comes from repetition and visibility. The more we see it, the more we say it, the less awkward it becomes.
That’s exactly the movement WE ARE REGULAR is championing. By showing up consistently, on social feeds, in group chats, and yes, even around the dinner table - the campaign is making gut health part of everyday conversation. And perhaps most importantly, it’s doing so with a glimmer of humour. “If people can laugh about it, they can talk about it seriously,” Holly explains, highlighting humour as a powerful tool for dismantling stigma
So, there we have it: the 101 of making our bowel movements a perfectly normal topic of conversation - no whispering, no panic, no dramatic exits from the room. Because the more we talk about it with honesty (and less awkward laughter), the more likely we are to spot when something’s off. And that, quite simply, could save a life.
Besides, we’ve all had worse conversations than this, some of them in group chats we can never leave.
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Words by Ellie Hammond for The Well Edit.
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