Cancer home testing kit could save 20,000 lives

Cancer Research UK calculated bowel cancer would save this number of people over the next 20 years if just 60 per cent of those eligible for bowel screening took the simple test.

Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in the UK, with 35,000 cases diagnosed each year and 16,000 deaths.

About one in 20 people in the UK will develop bowel cancer during their lifetime.

The self test kit is designed to let people take a faecal sample in the privacy of their home and send it for testing. If any blood is found they are invited for a colonoscopy. The test should be repeated every two years.

David Phillips, 67, a retired swimming coach from Coventry was part of the pilot bowel screening programme. He was sent a test kit in 2001.

Although initially reluctant, his wife persuaded him to do the test and the result showed blood in the sample.

Mr Phillips was diagnosed with bowel cancer and had surgery two weeks later. He has now fully recovered and has six-monthly check-ups.

He said: "I think I was very lucky that the screening test picked up on something that could have become so much worse. Early diagnosis was the reason I made such a good recovery.

"Without screening I probably would not have known I had cancer, but thanks to screening I am here to tell the story."

Maxine Taylor, an executive at Cancer Research UK said: "The NHS bowel screening programme will be invaluable in cutting the rising toll of bowel cancer deaths."

The kit is being sent out to all UK residents aged 60-69 as part of the national bowel cancer screening programme. For more information go to www.cancerscreening.nhs.uk/bowel