Bowel cancer screening to start earlier at age 50 in England

[Northerner]

Bowel cancer screening in England is to start earlier, at age 50, Public Health England has announced.

It said evidence showed that screening people at a younger age would allow more bowel cancers to be picked up at an earlier stage.

Currently, men and women in England are first invited for screening at the age of 60 and sent a home testing kit.

The change brings England in line with Scotland where bowel screening is automatically offered from 50.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-45143895

 

[mikeyB]

About time, too. Now all they have to do is run the NHS like it’s run in Scotland.

I don’t do it, I have biennial colonoscopy looking for bowel cancer because of my ulcerative colitis.

 

[trophywench]

Hee hee - we've been pooh testing for absolute yonks because both places I've lived were in the 'testing' tranches when they originally rolled it out and they let it loose on younger people, or something - I wouldn't have even been 50 cos I moved to this area in 1998 when I was 48 and I and my first husband were both doing it and it just carried on.

Bit quicker with the new test, we won't have two envelope etc things on the bathroom windowsill for long now!

 

[Northerner]

I hope all this extra testing doesn't generate a backlog 😱 😉

Seriously though, this may have helped my cousin had it been in sooner, who died from bowel cancer last year, aged 58