Home screening for bowel cancer starts in Lisburn

The Public Health Agency (PHA) and the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust are encouraging all men and women in the area aged 60-69 to take advantage of the new service.

The Bowel Cancer Screening programme is different from other programmes as it is carried out by participants themselves, in the comfort and privacy of their own home.

If you are aged between 60 and 69 your test kit will be sent out over the next two years to the address which your GP has for you.

It is therefore important your GP has your most up to date address or you may miss the chance to take part in the programme.

Dr Tracy Owen, Consultant in Public Health Medicine with the PHA said: "The home test kit can be completed easily in the privacy of a person's own home and returned by post to the new laboratory for analysis.

"It is hoped that as the test is carried out at home, more people will respond, particularly men, who often find health issues difficult to talk about.

"The screening kit is used to detect traces of blood in the bowel motion, which indicates that further tests need to be carried out.

"Most people who are tested will have no blood in their bowel motions and will be invited to repeat the screening test again in two years time.

"Only 10 people in every 500 who complete the test kit will have traces of blood in their bowel motion and only one of these will have bowel cancer."

The PHA says that as bowel cancer can develop at anytime, it is vital that everyone is aware of the signs and symptoms associated with the disease, which are unexpected, painless, persistent bleeding from your back passage, or blood in your stools, a change in bowel habits (diarrhoea or constipation) lasting six weeks or more and unexplained weight loss, pain or swelling in your abdomen.

If you develop any of these symptoms they say you should not wait to receive the screening kit, but instead should contact your GP.

For further information on the screening programme and what it involves, visit www.cancerscreening.hscni.net or if you have any questions on completing the test you can contact the freephone helpline 0800 015 2514