Bowel screening aims to find cancer early or to find changes in your bowel that could lead to cancer – and our Health Promotion Team are at the forefront of making sure abnormalities are detected early, thus saving lives.
The screening programmes send a free bowel screening test kit every 2 years to people aged between 54 and 74 who are registered with a GP.
Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK. Almost 43,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year in the UK. More than nine out of ten new cases (94%) are diagnosed in people over the age of 50. However, it is also one of the most treatable forms of cancer and can be cured if found in the earliest stages.
One of the reasons why bowel cancer deaths are so high is because the symptoms go unnoticed until the disease is well developed. The aim of screening is to find signs of bowel problems before you even start to have symptoms. Detecting abnormalities early can save lives.
(Image: Gov.uk).
