The NHS bowel cancer screening test

I recently did my first routine NHS bowel cancer screening test. Like the breast screening progamme (routine mammograms), the NHS bowel cancer screening programme aims to find bowel cancer early, when successful treatment and cure is more likely.

I’m very grateful that the NHS offers this service, free at the point of delivery.

I got a letter two weeks before, telling me to expect the kit in the post. I’m not sure why they send a letter first. I guess having warning before the test arrives must increase uptake of the test.

The letter said screening is offered every two years to people aged 50 to 74. I think there is an element of postcode lottery attached to the age when you first receive a test. I didn’t have one at 50, but both my husband and I received one within weeks of turning 52. A lady on social media told me she hadn’t received one at 53 and got in touch with her GP surgery, to be told she would get one at 54.

Accompanying the letter was a leaflet with more information on the bowel cancer screening programme. It said bowel cancer is cancer found anywhere in the large bowel, including the colon and rectum. The test is designed to detect small traces of blood in the poo, which could be an indicator of bowel cancer or something else.

It said for every 100 people completing their home test kit, 97 to 98 won’t need further tests – because there is no blood in the poo. Around two to three people in every 100 will have blood in their poo and will have a colonoscopy to check what is causing the blood.

The leaflet also lists the people more likely to get bowel cancer (although of course young, healthy people can and do get it too):

• Over 50
• Smoker
• Overweight
• Close relative has had bowel cancer
• Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis
• Small growths in the bowel called bowel polyps

The test itself wasn’t the most fun thing to do, but it was quick and easy. When it can pick up early indications of cancer, the slight inconvenience should be a no-brainer.

Instructions are printed inside the box, which comes in the post. First, you need to write the date on the sample bottle – your name will already be printed on it.

Then, you need to catch the poo either in a clean container or on layers of clean, dry toilet paper in the toilet – it’s important the poo doesn’t touch the toilet water. Obviously using a container leads to issues of disposal, so using the toilet seems far easier.

Top tip – if you wee when you sit down to poo, as most of us do, you will probably then need to put more toilet roll down the toilet for your test.

Once you’ve captured the poo, it’s just a case of getting a small amount on the test stick, making sure you cover all the grooves on the stick. Then seal the bottle back up and place it in the little cardboard envelope and put it in the post as soon as possible.

I put my bottle in the post and waited for the results, hoping for the best. The instructions said the letter would come within two weeks. In actual fact, it came in just eight days – exactly a month after my 52nd birthday.

And I’m pleased to say it showed that no further test are needed at this time.

Of course I could develop symptoms of bowel cancer in the next two years, in which case I would go to the doctor. But the result is real peace of mind until my next test when I’m 54.

A stranger on social media said to me they wished the NHS would ask people if they wanted the test, rather than send them to everyone. Apparently this person didn’t want it. WHY?! It could literally save your life for five minutes of doing something very slightly gross in your bathroom every two years. That view just seems so selfish – to that person’s family and friends who could lose them and to the NHS which would need to do more expensive treatment if cancer isn’t caught until much later.

Seriously, if you share this view, you really need to give your head a wobble.