BOWELSCREEN - ‘DO THE TEST’

BowelScreen – the national bowel screening programme

- is marking Bowel Cancer Awareness Month this April by urging people aged 60-69 years to check that they are on the bowel screening register, and to do the free home test.

The programme is asking people in their sixties, and their family members, to be aware of the symptoms of bowel cancer, to make sure that they are registered with BowelScreen so that they will receive the FIT test in the mail, when appropriate.

People are urged to complete the home test, which takes just a few minutes.

BowelScreen is one of the National Screening Service’s three cancer-screening programmes and it aims to detect colorectal (bowel) cancer as early as possible; and to identify and remove adenomas or polyps (abnormal tissue growths). This greatly reduces the risk of future bowel cancer development.

Bowel screening is a simple process: The programme mails a test kit to the person’s home. It is called the FIT (faecal immunochemical test) and is mailed free of charge to those who are on the BowelScreen register. Once the person has taken the test, in their home, they return their sample by Freepost. BowelScreen tests the sample for levels of blood. If the result is not normal, the person is referred for a further bowel examination via a colonoscopy.

Everyone aged 60-69 years is urged to check that they are on the register by visiting www. bowelscreen.ie, or by calling the Freephone number 1800 45 45 55.