1 IN 2 + intro and Q&A

To celebrate Maggie’s Cancer Centre’s 30th anniversary, The Light Cinema New Brighton proudly announces a special charity screening of filmmaker David Wilkinson's new feature documentary, 1 IN 2. 

100% of the box office income will be donated to Maggie’s Wirral where Wilkinson interviewed Mr Dale Vimalachandran and Dr Yasemin Hirst.  All three will be attending a Q&A following the screening.

Nearly one in two of us will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in our lives.  David Wilkinson is one 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, a 37-year-old 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 Wilkinson, with stage 4 bowel cancer.