Jodi Lee Foundation uses installation to encourage Australians to screen for bowel cancer
The Jodi Lee Foundation, a charity with the aim of eliminating bowel cancer in Australia, is encouraging Australians to screen for the presence of the disease in a new campaign which saw 5,000 screening kits erected in Sydney to form the words bowel cancer.
The campaign is centred around a TV ad shot in Martin Place, developed by AJF Partnership, to capture the public taking the kits. It aimed to symbolically represent the foundation’s aim to eliminate bowel cancer in Australia as when the kits where taken the words began to disappear. The sculptural work and film was directed by The Glue Society’s Peter Baker, with production by Will O’Rourke.
The Jodi Lee Foundation CEO Nick Lee said: “Many people don’t experience any symptoms of bowel cancer until it has become more advanced or has spread, which is why screening is so important. A simple screening test that can be completed in the privacy of your own home might just save your life.”
I received one of these kits in the mail five years ago when I turned 50 and it almost made me sick. I couldn’t believe it when I read that they expected you to put a cloth into the toilet, do your business then put the towel – wet – into a container. That wasn’t all. They then expected you to reach into the toilet bowl, get a handful of No 2s and put them into another container. All this had to be mailed to Hobart. I ignored it and within a week or so received two letters implying that it was compulsory and I had to do it. I sent them a letter saying I did not want to participate and for them to send me no further correspondence.