DIY cancer screening proves a real lifesaver

Ray Glover is glad he overcame his pride and took a home bowel cancer test again, because it may have saved his life.

The results from his first free home screening or faecal occult blood test (FOBT) kit, obtained though the Health Ministry’s National Bowel Screening Programme, were inconclusive. He thought twice about taking the test again.

He described the process involved in collecting the stool sample as ‘‘quite undignified’’.

‘‘I thought about chucking [the second test] in the bin. I was humming and hawing about whether to do it again [but] I thought they’ve had the courtesy to send another one so I decided to use it.’’

Despite being a smoker, the retired army cook from Upper Hutt showed no symptoms and had always kept in good health.

By nearly throwing away the second kit, he could have thrown away his life, he said. The results raised alarm bells and a tumour and polyps were found in his bowel. Following recent surgery to remove the cancer, Glover was recovering well and said the FOBT kit had almost certainly prolonged his life.

The National Bowel Screening Programme began as a pilot at the Waitemata District Health Board in 2011, and is now offered at the Hutt Valley, Wairarapa and Southern DHBs. It will be available from all boards by 2021.

Dr Susan Parry, clinical director of the National Bowel Screening Programme, said home testing was an excellent earlydetection tool.

The tests were free, simple and did not have to be undertaken in a medical facility, she said.

The ministry expected the programme

would make between 500 and 700 diagnoses a year. Since the pilot was introduced, 458 bowel cancer diagnoses have been made from 210,202 FOBT kits issued.

MoH Statistics show 3000 Kiwis are diagnosed and 1200 die from bowel cancer each year. It is second to lung cancer as the highest cause of cancer death in New Zealand.

Free FOBT kits are available from the Hutt Valley, Wairarapa, Waitemata and Southern DHBs for those eligible for public health care aged 60 to 74. For more details, visit: www.timetoscreen.nz.

‘‘I thought about chucking [the second test] in the bin.’’