Steve Brine attended the Parliamentary launch of Beating Bowel Cancer's 1,2,3 Campaign to encourage everyone over 60 to take part in bowel cancer screening.
Bowel cancer is the UK’s second biggest cancer killer. Around 85 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer in Winchester each year and almost half will die from the disease. Early diagnosis is the key to saving lives from bowel cancer; if diagnosed early over 90% of patients could be successfully treated. Therefore screening has a major role to play in reducing deaths from bowel cancer.
Beating Bowel Cancer has calculated that a further 1,279 lives could be saved every year if participation in bowel cancer screening matched other national cancer screening programmes in England. Although all people between the ages of 60 and 75 are invited to take part in the screening programme, currently only 59% of people in Winchester do, which is an improvement on the national average of 54% but still too low.
The 1,2,3 campaign features a short film, narrated by Dr Chris Steele, resident GP on ITV’s This Morning, which demonstrates how to complete the screening kit in easy to follow steps.
Speaking at the launch, on Wednesday 19th January, Steve Brine MP said: “I’m delighted to support the 1,2,3 campaign. There are nearly 60 bowel cancer diagnoses in every parliamentary constituency each year. If we improve participation in the screening programme we can diagnose these cases earlier and save lives.”
Mark Flannagan, Chief Executive of Beating Bowel Cancer said: “We are very pleased that Steve Brine is able to support the campaign. We have launched the 1,2,3 campaign to give people the confidence to complete the screening kit when it arrives on their doorstep. I have no doubt that if everyone took up screening when given the chance, bowel cancer would no longer be the UK’s second biggest cancer killer.”
Pictured; Steve attended the Parliamentary launch of the 1,2,3 campaign in the House of Commons
More information...
Access more on the campaign by visiting www.bowel123.co.uk
