Bowel Cancer Awareness

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:17): Today, many of us are wearing ribbons and apple badges to promote bowel cancer awareness. June is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month. Today, 17 June, is Red Apple Day, when green and red ribbons are sold to raise funds for research. One in 12 Australians will be diagnosed with bowel cancer during their lifetime, and every week 77 people die from the disease.

Many of us will have held events for Australia's Biggest Morning Tea in aid of the Cancer Council of South Australia in what has become an annual tradition. At the Florey EO, we hosted both a morning and an afternoon tea, and I would like to thank my staff for baking and co-hosting on the day and the many schools, community groups and clubs that attended.

Cancer, in any of its forms, has touched all of us in one way or another. While there seems to be many triggers and factors, healthy living and eating is one way all of us can hope to live a cancer-free life. Keeping a healthy weight is vital. Obese women have a 40 per cent higher risk of developing at least one of seven types of cancer in their lifetime.

Cancer Research UK, referred to by The Advertiser in an article by Jenny Hope on 18 March this year, tells us that the seven cancers are: bowel cancer, postmenopausal breast cancer, gallbladder cancer, womb cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer and oesophageal cancer. Statistics show that obese women have around a one in four risk of developing a cancer linked to weight in their lifetime. In a group of 1,000 obese women, 274 will be diagnosed with a body weight-linked cancer in their lifetime, compared with 194 women diagnosed in a group of 1,000 healthy weight women.

There are different ways obesity could increase the risk of cancer, and I am sure it is the same for men. One possibility is that it is linked to the production of hormones by fat cells, especially oestrogen in women, which is thought to fuel the disease. About 12 per cent of postmenopausal breast cancers are blamed on obesity. It is the highest number of cases linked to obesity because the cancer is so common.

Last year a study in the UK found that women were at double the risk of getting the disease because of their weight compared with men. Researchers said 8.2 per cent of all cancers in women in the UK are caused by being fat. The study found 4.4 per cent of all cancers in men were due to obesity. Dr Julie Sharp of Cancer Research UK said:

Losing weight isn't easy, but you don't have to join a gym and run miles every day or give up your favourite food. Just making small changes that you can maintain in the long term can have a real impact. We know that our cancer risk depends on a combination of our genes, our environment and other aspects of our lives, many of which we can control—helping people understand how they can reduce their risk of developing cancer in the first place remains crucial in tackling the disease. Lifestyle changes—like not smoking, keeping a healthy weight, and cutting back on alcohol—are the big opportunities for us all to reduce our cancer risk. Making these changes is not a guarantee against cancer, but it stacks the odds in our favour.

Our concerns for men's health—prostate cancer, in particular—are paramount, and I commend the work of the Florey Medical Centre in this field. Health checks are an important first line of defence and save lives. It is time to renew my call for multigrain and wholemeal breads to be on offer at the thousands of community sausage sizzles all over South Australia, and indeed Australia, every weekend.

Of course, fresh seasonal fruit and veggies are always best. Choosing from the food groups is an important habit to foster from childhood. I always ask children their favourite vegetable because mine is broccoli and it usually elicits a laugh. If you are what you eat, I have two recent articles that are worthy of note. On 27 April this year an article by Giles Sheldrick talks about a breakthrough in research into back pain suffered by millions of people and the way we could look at new ways of preventing this agony. Analysis shows that the rapid development of the human race learning to stand on two feet left us very vulnerable to slipped discs. The article goes on:

Back pain is one of the most common health issues—but for decades the cause of rapid deterioration was unknown. Medics thought it was simply age making our discs less flexible. Now it is thought there may be a link between walking upright and back problems.

Another article on the same day in the Daily Mail is about broccoli and the fact it contains the compound sulforophane which is known to block the inflammation and damage to cartilage associated with the condition of arthritis. However, patients would have to eat more than five pounds of broccoli a day to derive any significant benefit, so luckily they are working on a new synthetic compound that offers the potential of treatment.

While fresh is best, this capsule will become an option for us in the future. Sulforadex, which is the drug, significantly improves bone architecture, gait balance and movement. The research goes on to say that the initial results are very positive. Broccoli is also believed to reduce the risk of some cancers and cardiovascular disease and improve symptoms of autism. In another study carried out by the University of Pittsburgh it was found that it could be used to prevent throat cancer as in laboratory tests, extracts from broccoli were shown to give mice protection against oral cancer—

Ms CHAPMAN: Time!

Ms BEDFORD: —so I urge you all to eat more broccoli.

The SPEAKER: I uphold the deputy leader's point of order.

Time expired.