A MOTHER says a toilet break saved her life after she spotted the symptoms of bowel cancer.

Bowel cancer survivor Sue Rogers from Eastbury Manor Equestrian in Lower Broadheath, near Worcester made a visit to a portaloo at a horse trials and it saved her life.

She is now campaigning for all portaloos at events to have stickers on their doors to highlight bowel cancer symptoms.

Mrs Rogers, who was at the horse trials in 2015 to watch her daughter Vicki Hancox compete, was shocked after she went to the toilet and saw blood in the pan before she flushed it.

She visited her GP who initially thought it was due to piles but sent her for tests to be sure.

Ms Rogers said: “I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t feel ill and neither the doctors nor I expected this diagnosis.

"It was hard for it to sink in and when it did, I just felt so lucky that I had spotted the blood because I’d had no other symptoms.

"If I hadn’t noticed this and got it checked out, I wouldn’t have been diagnosed when I was and the outcome could have been a lot worse.

“Portaloos are the perfect place to check for blood in your poo as stools sit on a dry shelf before being flushed away, giving you the chance to have a good look.

"So we’re encouraging everyone to ‘take a poo and have a view’ – it could save other lives as it did mine.”

Judith Brodie, chief executive of the Beating Bowel Cancer charity, said: “Bowel cancer is the UK’s second biggest cancer killer but if caught early, 97 per cent of cases can be successfully treated. However the success rate can drop to just 7 per cent for a late-stage diagnosis.

When her cancer was diagnosed, it had not spread to any other organs but the tumour was huge and inoperable.

She had to endure months of gruelling chemotherapy and radiotherapy in an attempt to shrink the tumour so that it could be operated on.

At one point this resulted in her suffering from third degree burns and she spent eight days in hospital suffering from sepsis.

Eventually the chemotherapy resulted in the tumour shrinking and on in November 2016 it was operated on. Following complications more surgery followed and she was in hospital for another three and a half weeks over Christmas and New Year, eventually being discharged on January 9 this year.

She said her husband Pete had been 'amazing' and she could not have got through it without him.

Mrs Rogers has returned to work this month as a Children Services Manager for Action for Children.

Daughter Vicki will also be doing her bit to raise awareness of the disease.

This includes branding her horsebox with the Beating Bowel Cancer logo and will ask commentators at her equestrian events to announce that she is riding to raise awareness of the disease.

Anyone interested in being involved with Sue’s portaloo campaign can contact Sue by email at 1966smrogers@gmail.com or on twitter @1966smrogers #pooandview