Chief Executive of Bowel Cancer UK, Genevieve Edwards, offers her insights on how charities can benefit from listening to and collaborating with their community.
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Last year, bowel cancer was in the spotlight like never before. Thanks to the formidable campaigning of our late patron, Dame Deborah James, the landscape of bowel cancer changed in the UK. Through speaking openly about her diagnosis and end of life care, Dame Deborah opened up a national conversation around the disease. This sparked widespread media and public interest, and most importantly, inspired and mobilised our community.

It was champions within this community that proved to be the driving force behind our #GetOnARoll campaign, which recently won Corporate National Partnership of the Year with a Retailer at the Charity Times Awards.

Despite being the UK’s second biggest cancer killer, there is low awareness of bowel cancer amongst the public, with nearly four in ten people unable to name a single symptom. Knowing the symptoms, and acting on them, means the disease can be diagnosed earlier when it’s treatable and curable.

#GetOnARoll has seen us partner with nine of the biggest supermarkets in the UK and the leading toilet paper brand Andrex®, to print symptoms of bowel cancer on toilet roll packaging with the charity’s branding, putting this essential information in millions of homes. This contributed to a 19-percentage point increase in the number of people who can name one symptom of bowel cancer from March 2022 to May 2023.

Working on this campaign has shown us the magic that can happen when a charity collaborates with their community. Here are some of the key principles we stand by.

Never underestimate the power of your community to spark change

Our supporters are always at the heart of what we do. It was Cara Hoofe, a bowel cancer patient, friend of Dame Deborah and M&S employee, that sparked #GetOnARoll. She thought a powerful way to spread awareness of bowel cancer symptoms would be to put them on loo roll packs. Using M&S’s employee suggestion scheme, she persuaded CEO Stuart Machin to print the symptoms on their own brand toilet roll packaging.

We loved the idea and partnered with M&S to create #GetOnARoll, calling on other retailers to get involved. This was bolstered by Stuart challenging other supermarkets to sign up. We also asked our 40,000 campaigners to contact their favourite supermarket encouraging them to join, and again we saw the power of our community to initiate change.

As a charity, your community’s real-life experience means they may have fantastic ideas and it’s important to be open to listening to them. #GetOnARoll demonstrates they can both spark and mobilise a campaign.

Keep it simple with a clear impact

Part of the success of #GetOnARoll was that it was structured around a series of straightforward asks. It wasn’t complicated for retailers to include symptoms on their toilet roll packaging, and asking our community to Tweet asking supermarkets to sign up was a quick and simple task.

Despite the simple nature of the asks they have a huge, life-saving impact. Putting bowel cancer symptoms on loo roll packaging means more people are aware of the symptoms and can contact their GP quickly if they spot any. This means they’re more likely to have an earlier diagnosis when the disease is easier to treat.

Remember the credibility of your community’s voice

Charities spend years forming relationships with brands but sometimes we’re not the best people to make an ask of them. As an employee of M&S and someone who had personal experience of bowel cancer, Cara’s voice held credibility and power. As did those of our supporters who asked their supermarkets to join #GetOnARoll on their social media platforms.

So, while developing #GetOnARoll we consistently referred back to our community. Cara featured in the campaign’s comms, she did an interview with the Fundraising Bright Spots podcast, and she attended the Charity Times award ceremony with us.

Cara says: "This campaign has really shown me the power of collaboration. To be in the position now where all the major supermarkets have adopted the initiative is beyond words, and I can honestly say it wouldn't have happened without the support of M&S, Bowel Cancer UK or all the wonderful people who got behind the campaign.”

Listening to your supporters is key. It nurtures your relationship and empowers others to take part. We saw this when Jayne, who was diagnosed with bowel cancer, was inspired by #GetOnARoll to approach her employer, B&M, to sign up. Not only did Cara think of an award-winning campaign but she sparked a movement amongst our supporters and we’re now seeing more amazing ideas come from them.

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