500 bowel screening packs sent out
‘‘Just do it’’, is an Invercargill woman’s advice to anyone receiving a home testing kit for bowel cancer.
Judith Barrow, 60, was informed by mail from the Southern District Health Board that she was on the National Bowel Screening Programme, which was launched in April.
The DHB sent out 5000 home testing packs to southerners.
‘‘The pack turned up, and I thought, ‘What’s this?’
Having read that the presence of bowel cancer could show no symptoms, she admitted to feeling a little bit of anxiety about the package, and put the kit to one side.
‘‘It sat on the table for a couple of weeks. I then read it through and thought, ‘for goodness sake Judith, you can do this’.’’
She sent it in her sample last week, and in two weeks will get the results. Her GP will be informed if she tests positive.
‘‘I always intended to do it, but you say yourself, ‘I can’t be bothered’. But really there’s nothing to it. You don’t have to muck around . . . just get in there and do it.’’
Judith had a colonoscopy at 54, and it was all clear. ‘‘I do look after myself. I hardly drink and I eat well. There’s no family history of it [bowel cancer] so I had not worries to get it done.’’
To her, ‘‘knowledge is power’’. Nearly half the people in the Southern DHB who were sent kits in April to detect signs of bowel cancer have responded, with one cancer case being treated as a result, the DHB says.
The programme was already making a real difference to the lives of many residents and their families, clinical lead Dr Jason Hill said.
During the next two years, more than 51,000 Southland and Otago residents aged between 60 and 74 will be invited to participate in the free programme, which aims to stop bowel cancer at its earliest stages, a disease that kills 1200 New Zealanders a year, and a disproportionately high percentage of southerners.
From the 5000 kits sent out, more than 2200 returned tests had shown a negative result, which meant ‘‘peace of mind’’ for these residents and their families, he said.
Programme findings show a total of 141 tests have come back as positive for the presence of blood, which can indicate potential bowel cancer.
Everyone who has had a positive test result is contacted by their GP to arrange further investigation through a colonoscopy.
So far 35 southern residents have had a colonoscopy through the screening programme.
From these, Southern DHB staff found cases of pre-cancerous polyps, which were subsequently removed, and the one case of bowel cancer, for which the patient is undergoing treatment.