Gaby Roslin, 60, shares details of bowel cancer scare after spotting blood in her poo as she raises awareness following her father Clive's battle with the disease
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Gaby Roslin has shared details of her previous cancer scare, after watching her father Clive battle bowel cancer.
The TV presenter, 60, has been raising awareness of bowel cancer for three decades, alongside her late friend Dame Deborah James, who died of the disease age 40 in 2022.
Gaby revealed she previously had a scare after finding blood in her poo in 2001. She went to the GP but was relieved when told it was piles from after childbirth.
She said: 'I was like, "Oh my God, I need to find out about it", because I obviously had a history of bowel cancer in my family.'
Gaby shared her experience during the launch of Toilet Talk - a social media series to raise awareness - and in collaboration with Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK.
She told The Sun: 'If this series helps even one person catch their bowel cancer early, it's worth it.
Gaby Roslin has shared details of her previous cancer scare, after watching her father Clive battle bowel cancer
Her father Clive, a former BBC radio announcer, was diagnosed with the disease in the late Nineties
'If there's blood or changes in your poo, don't sit on it — see a doctor!'
Her father Clive, a former BBC radio announcer, was diagnosed with the disease in the late Nineties.
She reveled the language surrounding bowel cancer was too taboo for TV at the time: 'We wanted to publicise and we were being interviewed, and the journalist who was interviewing us said, "Sorry Clive, you just can't say poo".
'Dad said, "But that's what I'm talking about - bowel cancer".
Recalling her dad's diagnosis, Gaby explained: 'He came back from a holiday with mum and told us he'd started pooing himself.
'Then he found some blood in his poo and told his brother. Thank goodness he did, for his brother - a doctor - urged him to seek help immediately.
'It was caught early. Twenty-nine years later my dad is still alive.'
There are more than 44,000 new bowel cancer diagnoses in the UK each year, and almost 142,000 in the US.
The TV presenter, 60, has been raising awareness of bowel cancer for three decades, alongside her late friend Dame Deborah James (pictured), who died of the disease age 40 in 2022
Gaby revealed she previously had a scare after finding blood in her poo in 2001. She went to the GP but was relieved when told it was piles from after childbirth
Bowel cancer can cause you to have blood in your poo, a change in bowel habit, a lump inside your bowel which can cause an obstructions. Some people also suffer with weight loss a s a result of these symptoms
Although the vast majority affect those aged over 50, rates in older age-groups has either declined or held stable while diagnoses in younger adults have risen by 50 per cent over the last 30 years.
Gaby previously opened up about her grief following the death of her mother when she was in her early thirties.
The BBC Radio DJ's mother Jackie died in 19997 aged 62 from smoking-related lung cancer.
Gaby said that almost three decades after the tragedy, she still feels the heartbreak, which she described as being 'hit in my tummy'.
The mother-of-two said she is heartbroken that Jackie never got to meet her daughters - Libbi-Jack, 23, from her first marriage to musician Colin Peel, and Amelie, 17, who she shares with her husband of 12 years, David Osman.
'There was something on the radio this morning, and they read out something about somebody saying their kids never got a chance to meet their grandmother,' she recalled to OK! magazine.
'My mum died 28 years ago, and it just got me in my stomach. I always say to people when they lose someone, 'Just remember, there are no rules to grief.' And now here I am 28 years later, like somebody had hit me in my tummy.'
Gaby revealed she keeps Jackie's memory alive by talking about her to her children and keeping photos of her around the house.
The TV presenter said she 'wishes' Jackie could have met her grandchildren, recalling her mother's promises to look after them once a week so she could go on a date night.
'But you carry them in your hearts and every so often they come to the front of your mind when you least expect it,' she said.
Gaby - who now hosts her own Magic Radio show on Saturdays - previously spoke about her mother's 'harrowing' death during an emotional interview in 2023.
'When my mum died, I said, 'You know what? I'm never apologising about being happy again, because life is so precious,'' she told The Sun .
'Mum died of lung cancer the day that my dad Clive, 89, got the all-clear from bowel cancer. It was a harrowing time.'
She shares Libbi-Jack, 23, with her ex-husband Colin Peel, and Amelie, 17, with her husband of 12 years, David Osman (pictured together)
Gaby said one of the biggest lessons she took away from the dark period was the importance of self-care and 'making the most' of life.
'We don't know when it's going to end and I just want to make the most of every moment. But I also want other people to feel that as well, I really do.'
Gaby is a presenter and broadcaster who first hit our screens in 1992 on Channel 4 series The Big Breakfast.
The Big Breakfast originally ran from 1992 to 2002, with Gaby presenting the show alongside Chris Evans from the show's inception until 1996.
In 1993, the programme was the highest rated breakfast show in the UK, with around two million viewers tuning in per episode.
Gaby remained on the show until 1996 when Zoe Ball took her place, other famous names to present the programme include Kelly Brook and Denise Van Outen.
As a girl, Gaby used to sit alongside the screen during broadcasts of Blue Peter, taking on the role of an imagined fourth presenter, getting her father -former BBC newsreader Clive Roslin- to pretend to film her.
Reflecting on finally getting to live her childhood dream she added: 'I can still remember that moment when I heard in my earpiece 'Ten seconds to live' the first time. It was everything I hoped it would be. I've loved every moment since.'
