Men have been growing their beards this month to raise awareness of bowel cancer.

Bank manager Nigel Sheepwash has a particularly poignant reason for joining in.

Mr Sheepwash, from Chatham, has been taking part in Decembeard for the second time in memory of his fiancee Lorraine Budd.

The couple had only been together for eight months when Miss Budd, who worked at the University of Greenwich’s campus in Chatham Maritime, found a lump on her stomach.

Mr Sheepwash, 45, said at first she was not worried.

He said: “She’d been a vegan for 20-odd years, only had one drink every so often in the last five years so she just thought she’d overstretched herself.

“She went to the doctors a couple of days later and he said he wanted to do some blood tests.”

A week later the lump had grown so Miss Budd returned to her doctor. She was told she had bowel cancer on her 42nd birthday.

Mr Sheepwash said: “The lump was where the cancer had spread to her liver and it had swollen so much. She underwent 17 rounds of chemotherapy but it spread to her lungs and neck. She must have had it for years.”

Miss Budd died in hospital in October last year not long before her 43rd birthday.

Mr Sheepwash said: “We had both been single for a long time and both been waiting to find that one person. We knew we had so we got engaged while she was in hospital. Bowel cancer is a cancer we don’t hear a lot of and I know a couple of people who have had it. We’ve all got a stiff upper lip and talking about our bowel habits is something we don’t do.

“Take a look before you flush and keep and eye on what your habits are.

“If you have got something unusual that’s gone on for a while, go to your doctors – don’t wait.”

To find out more visit www.decembeard.org or donate at www.justgiving.com/Nigel-Sheepwash2