"I have nothing but admiration as to how they conduct themselves"

Dear Jassa936,

many thanks for taking the time to post your very positive comments. Gillian and her team work very hard to ensure that all patients are put as ease as having a positive bowel screening test in itself can make you very anxious aside to having colonoscopy itself. I delighted to hear that your experience was such a positive one and I will share your lovely feedback with Gillian.

Again Many Thanks

Best Wishes

Maureen

Dear Jassa936

Thanks for taking the time to respond. Well done for completing the bowel screening test kit. I hope that others reading your experience will be encouraged to participate in the screening programme and attend for follow-up investigations.

Bowel cancer is Scotland’s third most common cancer and almost 500 are picked up every year in Lanarkshire. The great news is that, if it’s found early - by screening, even before any symptoms are there - nine out of 10 people will beat it.

As you know, the bowel screening programme is designed to pick up traces of hidden blood in the bowel motions, (poo). If traces of blood are found, this can be a sign of bowel cancer BUT don’t panic! Traces of blood can also be caused by lots of other things.

However it is very important that we check the bowel of a person who tests positive with bowel screening with a more in-depth diagnostic test. The best way to do this is by having a colonoscopy, (a scope), usually as an outpatient. This is an examination of the bowel using a very fine tube with a tiny camera at the end of it. About 1 in 40 people who take the screening test (around 2.5%) test positive with bowel screening kits but less than 10% (less than 1 in 10 people who have tested positive with a bowel screening test kit) actually have a bowel cancer when further diagnostic tests are done: they may have polyps or other less serious bowel disease and in around half the people who test positive with screening, no problem is found at all when a more accurate (or diagnostic) test is carried out.

The great thing about the screening test is that it can detect hidden blood in people with no bowel symptoms and this allows us to pick up bowel cancers at a very early stage when 90% of them can be cured. And doing the screening test is a quick easy thing to do in your own home although you do need to get a little prepared! Did you know that half a million Scots take the screening test every year?

Bowel screening is a great help to us in the health service in picking up early bowel cancers but it is not foolproof. We know that it does not pick up every single cancer present at the time of testing. That’s why it is really important to take the test every time you are invited which is every 2 years while you are between the ages of 50 and 74. You can keep taking part in bowel screening beyond the age of 74 if you want to by contacting the bowel screening centre in Dundee. For more information call the Bowel Screening Centre Helpline, free of charge on 0800 0121 833 (textphone 180010800 0121 833) or email bowelscreening.tayside@nhs.net.

Please don’t forget that the screening test is intended for people with no bowel symptoms. If you are having bowel symptoms which have lasted a few weeks or more like the (attached document) you MUST go and see your GP.

Information on how to best prevent bowel cancer through a healthy lifestyle is available via the attached link.

https://www.bowelcanceruk.org.uk/about-bowel-cancer/risk-factors/reducing-your-risk/