Alison is now calling for the screening age to be lowered
A Co Antrim mum-of-three, diagnosed with bowel cancer almost five years ago aged 57, is calling for the screening age in Northern Ireland to be extended to people under 50 amidst a surge in cases of the disease in younger people.
Bowel cancer is one of the most common cancers for both men and women, with one in 20 people in Northern Ireland likely to develop the disease. Screening can help detect cancer at an early stage when treatment is more effective. It can also check for and remove polyps, which are abnormal growths in the bowel that can go on to develop into cancer over time.
“I had become really constipated and was getting progressively worse and the haemorrhoids weren’t clearing up. I came home at the end of February and the Covid-19 pandemic was starting and you couldn’t see your GP and I got worse. The constipation wouldn’t ease and I took really bad pains at the top of my legs.
She started radiotherapy and oral chemo on December 29 and her treatment finished on July 5, 2021. She hasn’t had to go back on treatment since and some of the tumours on her lungs have shrunk.“I wanted to put vinyl stickers on every toilet door in Ballymena and anywhere else further afield if I can get them so that if someone is going to the loo they can see the five symptoms There’s a wee QR code they can click on and it takes them to a video I did for Bowel Cancer UK.
She added: “Bowel cancer, if detected early, can be treated successfully. Preventive action will increase the number of people surviving bowel cancer and reduce the strain on our health service to treat patients who have been diagnosed at a later stage. "The Minister also recently published his three-year strategic plan for the Health and Social Care, further committing that by April 2027, subject to additional funding, we will have an expanded bowel screening programme.
Department Of Health Ballymena Co Antrim
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