NHS trust aims to raise bowel cancer awareness

3 hours ago

Louise Parry

During bowel cancer awareness month, teams will be on hand at Peterborough City Hospital and Hinchingbrooke Hospital

North West Anglia NHS A group of five men and women stand in front of an exhibition stall about bowel cancer, all wearing matching teal-coloured T-shirts with a picture of a pink bowel on the front. They wear lanyards and a woman in the middle of the group holds up a fan of leaflets about spotting bowel cancer early. They are in the entrance to what appears to be a hospital. — During bowel cancer awareness month, teams will be on hand at Peterborough City Hospital and Hinchingbrooke Hospital

Health teams will be on hand at two hospitals this month to share information and awareness about bowel cancer, particularly among under-60s.

Figures for the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust (NWANFT) showed while people aged 60-74 were most likely to take a screening sample, only 56% of people aged 54 had carried out the test.

NWANFT's team will be at Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon and Peterborough City Hospital during April, which is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, to offer advice and show people the screening kits.

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK and can be curable, especially if diagnosed at an early stage.

What are the signs of bowel cancer?

The trust is supporting a 2025 initiative that lowered the screening age to 50, to help spot bowel cancer before symptoms start.

Everyone aged 50-74 is now eligible for a home testing kit, known as a FIT (faecal immunochemical test).

NWANFT's bowel cancer screening programme manager, Jane Minett, said: "We would encourage anyone who is within the age range for the screening programme and receives their kit through the post to complete it.

"Screening can also help to find polyps which may be growing in the bowel."

More than nine out of 10 new cases are diagnosed in people over the age of 50, but the disease is increasingly affecting younger people.

Anyone below the screening age and worried about any symptoms should contact their GP, the trust said.

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