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Hamilton billboard nurse dies of cancerA Hamilton woman who became the face of “I came back to nursing” and bowel cancer awareness campaigns, died this week after a 16-month battle.Lorraine Stringer, 64, passed away at home on Tuesday morning. Her funeral will be in Hamilton tomorrow (Friday 1pm). Mrs Stringer featured in a Waikato District Health Board advertising campaign early last year on radio, newspapers and billboards encouraging those who left nursing when pay and conditions were not so good, to return and use their skills today. Four months into the successful campaign, medical specialists told her she had bowel cancer. Bowel cancer is New Zealand's second-biggest cancer killer after lung cancer. More than 2700 people develop bowel cancer every year and about 1200 or more die from it annually. Early diagnosis and treatment makes it curable. Mrs Stringer said if bowel cancer received the same public attention as breast and cervical cancer, she might have taken more notice and had tests. In a video filmed for the DHB’s bowel cancer awareness campaign, Mrs Stringer said the diagnosis was an “absolute blow”. “I’ve had 40 years experience. If a nurse can go through this and not know, how can a layperson know? “Had there been an awareness campaign it might have just triggered that one little inkling ‘hey you need a colonoscopy’. My message to everybody is take a look at your family history, if you fit into the category of having bowel cancer, please have a colonoscopy,” she said. When she went public, she said if sharing her story meant others were tested, then she would feel she achieved something. One woman got in touch with her earlier this year saying she read Mrs Stringer’s symptoms, contacted her doctor and discovered early bowel cancer symptoms. To see Lorraine Stringer’s story go to http://www.waikatodhb.govt.nz/events/pageid/2145840780/Lorraine_Stringer_cancer_battle Date: 3 September 2009 Mary Anne Gill Director Media and Communications Waikato District Health Board P.O. Box 934 Hamilton 3240 Ph: 07 834 3684 Mobile: 021 705 213 |