Yesterday was a lovely day in central London. If you were walking along The Mall at around 1pm, however, you might of got a shock. You see, I dropped my trousers in public. To be honest, about 50 other people did the same all in aid of Bowel Cancer awareness.

OK, so a friend of mind actually twisted my arm to do this and, what the picture doesn’t show, are the crowds of people who were watching, non of whom would join in. It was very awkward indeed especially as the photographer made who do the whole ‘drop your trousers’ think about ten times.

UPDATE 16TH JUNE: If you see any coverage, let me know (Yahoo Messenger: musak_uk). I forgot to include the link to the Beating Bowel Cancer website. And no, I won’t tell you which of them is my fine backside.

Full text of the press release, see the Beating Bowel Cancer website:

13 June 2003 – Volunteers overcame their shyness and bared their bottoms today to help Beating Bowel Cancer reveal a national awareness campaign. Coinciding with tomorrow’s full moon the volunteers gathered in central London and mooned in June, displayed their derrières and brandished their buttocks to help draw attention to bowel cancer and its symptoms.

Bowel cancer is the UK’s second most deadly cancer, killing more people than breast cancer and other cancers. 95 men and women of all ages are diagnosed with the disease each day. 45 of them will die. This does not have to be the case, if people are diagnosed early enough, bowel cancer is the most curable cancer.

Supporting the campaign are TV presenters Graham Norton and Gaby Roslin.

Graham, a former winner of ‘rear of the year’, commented, “Although sadly not able to join the moon, I am lending my support to Beating Bowel Cancer’s awareness campaign. The mass moon in central London is just So cheeky and draws much-needed attention to an important and serious subject.”

Gaby explained, “Bowel cancer needn’t be the killer that it currently is. When diagnosed and treated early the majority of people can be cured. My father is testament to this fact and that it why I am backing Beating Bowel Cancer’s campaign to raise awareness of the disease and its symptoms and encourage people to seek help quickly.”

Beating Bowel Cancer is using posters to highlight the higher risk symptoms of the disease: recent, persistent change of bowel habit; looser, more diarrhoea-like stools; going to the loo more often, or trying to go; and bleeding from the bottom for no reason. The posters provide three suggestions for anyone concerned to obtain further information: a dedicated website (www.beatingbowelcancer.org), a new bowel cancer booklet available by calling 0845 145 0020 and their GP.

Hilary Whittaker, Chief Executive of Beating Bowel Cancer, commented, “The first step to combating this disease is to build awareness of its symptoms, which is what we hope to achieve through this campaign. With 35,000 people diagnosed with the disease each year, Beating Bowel Cancer is committed to encouraging people to speak frankly about the disease and not be embarrassed to talk about bottoms and bowels! It is imperative to stop people sitting on their symptoms – it could cost them their life”.

From Monday 16 June, the posters will appear on the backs of toilet doors and other areas of male and female washrooms in 179 shopping centres and 58 service stations across the UK. The campaign will run for four weeks and aims to reach approximately 11.1 million men and 16.7 million women.

The campaign is being sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline.

Click for more information.

On this day…

2004: Personal Information Management
2004: Cameraphone Backlash
2004: Already It’s Mid June
2003: I Capture the Castle