More than 70 local people are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year.
So says the Irish Cancer Society as its annual awareness campaign around the disease is launched.
April is bowel cancer awareness month and the Irish Cancer society says the symptoms and diagnosis of the illness was one of the top pages visited on its website in 2016.
In fact it was searched for more than any other specific cancer type.
2,500 people are diagnosed every year including 50 people in Kilkenny and more than 20 in Carlow according to the statistics.
Around 1,000 people die from bowel cancer each year making it the second most common cause of cancer death in Ireland
The Irish Cancer Society says while the numbers of new cases per year continue to rise, survival rates have also increased gradually.
Bowel cancer is most common in people over 60 years of age and quite often is only diagnosed in the later stages.
However, if caught early, it is extremely treatable.
