Inflatable Body Organs and Global Healthcare Projects presented an inflated walk-through replica of a cancerous bowel on the Guildhall Square to raise bowel cancer awareness.

The inflated bowel has travelled for years and been seen at various events after it was designed by Jolanta Gore-Booth, the former CEO of Colon Cancer Concern (now Bowel Cancer UK), in 2008.

Jolanta said: “I recognised that when you see it you remember it. So you walk through it and you remember what bowel cancer is. People talk to you, at you, and you won’t remember things.”

The display on Saturday, April 15 was attended by members of the Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue service and the mayor of Salisbury, Councillor Tom Corbin. Jolanta said the level of support and interest from the community was very rewarding.

Jolanta said: “For me, it’s been the most rewarding event I’ve done so long as I’ve done this.”

Jolanta is trying to set up a screening programme for the fire service. Nurse Barbara Featherstone, one of the handful of nurses who volunteered to show people through the bowel, gave members of the fire service a tour.

Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue crew manager Rich Plaskett said: “We’ve got an occupational health department which provides for our well-being, but we’ve got no specific screening for any particular cancers.”

Jolanta said 64 people a day die in the UK from bowel cancer, the third most common type of cancer in the UK, with 16,000 people a year losing their lives to a case of bowel cancer that could have been treated if diagnosed earlier.

According to Cancer Research UK, bowel cancer is the third most common type of cancer in the UK after breast and lung cancer.

Jolanta said: “To me, the point of today, if there’s going to be a quote, is, ‘Screening saves lives.’ Bowel cancer screening saves lives.”