The College took part in a community event in its local borough, with four RCPath Fellows helping local people to explore how home test kits for faeces samples allow pathologists to detect blood in people’s poo. Developed and facilitated by public engagement professional, Dr Sai Pathmanathan, the three activities gave residents in Tower Hamlets the opportunity to first find out how their digestive system works, and then hear how things can go wrong and how we test what comes out to find out what is going on.
The activities, run as part of the Boundary Estate Fun Palace weekend, were designed to show people how simple tests are used to spot early signs of bowel cancer. Part of the activities were based on the College’s popular, ‘A Little Bit Pooey’ activity, which demonstrates how the Faecal Occult Test card works, using pretend poo made of potato, which gives a positive result on the test card. Alongside this was a ‘pom-pom peristalsis’ activity, which showed participants how the digestive system works, and a brand new activity, which used magnetic sheets and everyday materials to simulate the new Faecal Immunochemical (‘FIT’) Test , which can detect very small amounts of human blood in the stool.
This was the first time these activities were run together in this way, and volunteers reported that they went down really well with the Fun Palace visitors.
Clinical Fellow, Dr Samin Chowdhury, who volunteered on the Saturday said:
“It was a great pleasure to have participated in such a lovely event full of fun. I enjoyed discussing the pathology tests to detect blood in poo. I hope we made the public, especially the kids, a bit interested in pathology. I look forward to volunteering in such events more in the future.
Many of the visitors left very enthused and a number of them said they had learnt a great deal by speaking with the pathologists about the screening tests. Community Partnerships Officer, Rizia Ali, from Tower Hamlets Homes, brought along her 6-year old niece, who was really fascinated by the poo-related activities:
“She has spoken about nothing but about the poo test to her parents and how long before they turn 65 so they can be tested and that she will get tested when she is 65 (she is 6 now!). So despite looking shocked about this discussion, it seems my niece has learnt something positive.”
The new FIT-Test activity will be refined and then worked up into a brand new activity pack, as part of the College’s extensive range of activity resources.
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