Good news in times when all we hear about is government cuts. David Cameron, has announced that £60 million will be invested over the next four years in introducing the latest bowel cancer screening technology. This is known as flexible sigmoidoscopy or Flexi-Scope or Flexisig and it will be used alongside existing techniques.
It involves a thin, bendy tube with a camera attached being placed a short way into the rectum and lower bowel. The inside wall of the bowel can then be viewed and polyps removed before they develop into bowel cancer.
Trials will begin in England next spring and the roll out will take place over four years. It won't happen quickly, because practice nurses - who are likely to administer the test - will need to be trained. The UK lags behind the rest if Europe in cancer survival rates so this is a move in the right direction but it looks like it will only be available for patients over 55.
While this is excellent news - I would like the screening be made available to 50 year olds and above. That way mine would have been caught 3 years ago and the costs of radiotherapy, chemotherapy and a big operation might have been avoided - as well as the physical and emotional roller coaster you experience when it is diagnosed at a later stage.
On a lighter note - I have actually been watching and enjoying the Ryder Cup. A first for me - this patience I seem to have found also means that I have acquired the ability to watch golf on the TV and at one point I even listened to it on the radio!
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