The three local women are in various stages of a struggle with bowel cancer and it’s a disease they don’t want people to get.

The trio, as part of Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, helped with an information and awareness day at the Shoalhaven Cancer Care Centre and they were open and forthcoming with advice.

They want people to not be embarrassed about their bowel health and to take notice of any changes to their body.

Mrs Weeks said when it came to a choice between a little embarrassment about telling someone you saw blood on toilet paper or getting bowel cancer knows which one she would choose.

Mrs Weeks was 40, fit and healthy when she was diagnosed with bowel cancer and was determined not to become a statistic.

According to Bowel Cancer Australia the disease kills 77 Australians every week and each year over 4000 people die.

Bowel cancer is the third most common type of newly diagnosed cancer in Australia affecting both men and women almost equally and is Australia's second biggest cancer killer after lung cancer.

Both Mrs Hopkins and Mrs  Xuereb are aware of the harsh statistics.

Mrs Hopkins was diagnosed two years and is looking to be cancer free for the rest of her life.

She said a positive approach to beating the disease was one of the key factors in her survival.

Mrs Hopkins was in general a healthy person, which shows how bowel cancer can sneak up on a person.

Bowel cancer also sunk up on Mrs  Xuereb and she did not even know she had a time-bomb, in the form of a massive tumor,  ticking away in her body.

“I was told the tumor had been in my bowel of seven years and I had no idea,” Mrs Xuereb said.

The cancer has spread into Mrs Xuereb’s lungs but she is feeling well at the moment.

Meanwhile, Mrs Weeks is playing positive role in the fight against bowel cancer by being an advocate and staging funding raising events for the last three years.

“We raised $5000 the first year, $8000 the next and this year we raised $11 000,” Mrs Weeks said.

Funds go to Bowel Cancer Australia and she also donated money to Professor Philip Clingan, a highly respected medical oncologist, for the University of Wollongong’s Office of Community and Partnerships and the Research Services program this year.

Apples, donated by the Nowra Farmer’s Market , were given away at the Bowel Cancer Awareness Month at the Shoalhaven Cancer Care Centre.