DHB seeks to lift screening rates
After undergoing a life-saving operation for bowel cancer, Ben Cullen is happy to be spending time with his family.
But the 65-year-old says his decision to send in a screening test after being prompted by his wife was key to him discovering he had the disease and getting treatment.
Counties Manukau DHB is encouraging eligible people to ensure they get screened for bowel, cervical and breast cancer after a drop-off in numbers over the past two years because of Covid-19.
The National Bowel Screening Programme is a free initiative to help detect bowel cancer.
Under the scheme, every two years men and women in the Counties Manukau DHB area aged 60 to 74 years who are eligible for publicly funded health care are screened.
The test detects minute traces of blood in a person’s sample of faeces, which can be an early warning sign of bowel cancer and an indication that further investigation is required.
New Zealand has one of the highest rates of the disease in the world which claims 1200 lives a year in this country.
Cullen, of Manurewa in south Auckland, said he’d experienced abdominal pains for a number of years, but never thought about getting them checked out.
But his wife Emma was sent a test in 2021 as part of the National Bowel Screening Programme and suggested he send in a sample. He did and was contacted by Counties Manukau Health to go in for a colonoscopy in November.
Cullen was told doctors had found a cancerous polyp, or growth, and he would need to undergo surgery to remove it.
‘‘I wasn’t going to go at first, but the doctor said if I got it done it might save my life,’’ Cullen said.
He said they ended up removing six to eight inches of his bowel in an operation in December and after spending three days at Middlemore Hospital, he returned home on Christmas Day.
Cullen said he had a new lease on life and had since changed his diet. His 20 grandchildren and nine greatgrandchildren meant he had a lot to live for, he said.
‘‘It was a life-changing experience for me and I’m a lot healthier for it.’’
He said anyone who received a test kit as part of the National Bowel Screening Programme should do it.
‘‘Don’t delay because if you don’t the next step could be the cemetery.’’
Counties Manukau Health’s service delivery manager for bowel screening Hasitha Samarasinha said there had been a six per cent drop in bowel cancer screening numbers over the past two years.
‘‘Since then we’ve been trying to play catch up.’’
Samarasinha said the participation rate for Māori had fallen from over 55 per cent to 49 per cent in that time, while the rate for Pasifika was 41 per cent.
The DHB attempted to screen 70,000 people every two years to pick up bowel cancer earlier.
‘‘If it is picked up at stage one or stage two and you get treatment you have a 95 per cent chance of long-term survival,’’ he said.
‘‘If it is picked up later your chance of survival is only about 10 per cent.’’
‘‘Don’t delay because if you don’t the next step could be the cemetery.’’ Ben Cullen
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.