Bowel cancer screening: your next poo could save your life

Early diagnosis is vital to detecting bowel cancer: detecting it at the earliest stage makes you up to nine times more likely to be treated successfully.

Now, an NHS campaign is reminding people aged 56 to 74, who are eligible to receive a home-testing kit, to make sure they complete and return it.

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK. However, the number of people dying has fallen in recent decades, with earlier diagnosis being the key. Despite this, the latest data shows that almost one third of people who were sent an NHS bowel cancer screening kit in England last year did not go on to complete it.

The test works by checking for tiny traces of blood, which may not be visible to the naked eye.  Blood in your poo is one of the signs of bowel cancer, but does not always mean cancer. Instead, it could be a sign of piles or polyps (growths in the bowel).  Polyps are not cancer but could develop into cancer over time.

Dr Sarah Whiteman, Chief Medical Director at Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board, said:

“The NHS bowel cancer screening kit detects signs of cancer before you notice anything wrong. Detecting bowel cancer at the earliest stage makes you up to 9 times more likely to be successfully treated. So, if you’re aged 56 to 74 and are registered with a GP practice, you’ll be sent a kit in the post automatically, every two years.

“The kit is quick to complete and can be done in the privacy of your own bathroom using the step-by-step instructions on the box. You only need to collect one tiny sample of poo using the plastic stick provided, pop it in the sample bottle and post it for free to be tested.

“If something is found, you will be invited to have further tests, usually at a hospital.”

The lower age limit for bowel cancer test kits will be reduced to 50 from 2025, so if you’re sent the kit, help yourself by remembering to complete it. Put it by loo, don’t put it off.