Nearly one in two of us will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in our lives. David Nicholas Wilkinson is one of them, twice over.
In 2020, a colonoscopy found his bowel to be extremely healthy for a man his age. In 2023, a FIT test came back clear and, like almost everyone who takes one, he assumed that meant the all-clear. In 2024, a second colonoscopy found bowel cancer. Stage 4. He was told his tumour was 5-6 years old. What went wrong?
A FIT test looks for blood. Wilkinson’s tumour never bled. Nor do a great many others.
1 IN 2 follows Wilkinson through his own treatment, where he discovers a steep rise in bowel cancer among people far too young to be screened for it, and far too young, it seems, to be believed. Among those who tell him their stories is a bowel surgeon whose own symptoms were dismissed by her oncologist colleagues and in part by herself because she was only 44.
Bowel cancer is very insidious; it often strikes with few or no symptoms. One of the participants, an NHS nurse specialising in colonoscopies, had only one symptom: anxiety. 1 IN 2 attempts to flag up early signs, because the one thing no one wants is to end up like director David Nicholas Wilkinson, with stage 4 bowel cancer.
Released in the cinema as part of Maggie’s Cancer Centre 30th Anniversary celebrations. A significant percentage of the box office income will go directly to Maggie’s St Barts.
The screening is a tribute to Lisa Andrews-Dhapra, a bowel surgeon who trained at St Barts, where she was filmed for 1 IN 2, and died of bowel cancer in May, aged just 50.
