Bowel & Cancer Research gets help from Sainsbury’s Whitechapel staff

Supermarket staff in London’s East End have selected a national cancer research organisation on their doorstep as their charity of the year.

Organisers at Bowel & Cancer Research in Whitechapel are over the moon that their local Sainsbury’s store has chosen the charity.

The choice struck a particular chord with Sainsbury’s employee Sue Hudson.

“My mum might still be here if I’d known about this charity a few years ago,” she said.

The charity has its HQ at the National Centre for Bowel Research and Surgical Innovation in Newark Street behind the Royal London Hospital—less than a-quarter-of-a-mile from the supermarket in Brady Street.

Its chief executive Deborah Gilbert said: “This partnership will help us raise badly-needed funds for research and get a vital message out — know what the symptoms of bowel cancer are and to act on them. It might literally save lives by raising awareness.”

Bowel cancer affects 40,000 people in Britain every year, but has become a taboo subject to talk about, the charity points out. Getting support from a company like Sainsbury’s with its 400 staff at Whitechapel goes a long way towards changing that attitude, the charity believes.