A BOLTON MP is backing a campaign to lower the screening age for bowel cancer from 60 to 50.
Yasmin Qureshi is supporting Beating Bowel Cancer’s call for the rest of the UK to follow Scotland’s lead in bringing down the screening age.
Bowel cancer is the second biggest cancer killer in the UK, and, over the next decade, it is estimated that over 40,000 people in their 50s will be diagnosed with the disease.
The Labour MP for Bolton South East said: “Under the current system there is a diagnosis lottery in the UK, with people in Scotland receiving earlier screenings, and therefore a better chance of survival, than people in the rest of the UK. By reducing the screening age to 50, the government could ensure that more people survive bowel cancer than ever before.
“I have therefore written to the Public Health Minister, Nicola Blackwood MP, and called on her to follow Scotland’s lead.”
People diagnosed with bowel cancer in stage one of the disease have a survival rate of 97 per cent, compared to just seven per cent for those diagnosed in stage four.
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